Crossfit - Edmonton Canada, eh?

Hey Crossfitters - I was up in Edmonton Candada recently and got to visit a Crossfit up there.  This was another crossfit located in an industrial area about 30 minutes from downtown so yes a bit of a cab ride at 5:30 in the morning to get to the 6 am class.    Fairly good size class, 10 people and all really nice people.

The location itself was not very big but they had all the nescessary equipment for a great workout.  Up at this location, we did a full 20 minutes of warm up from box jumps to inch work push ups, to air squats and some yoga moves.  We did a full 10 minutes of light shoulder work to get ready for the WOD.  The workout was as follows

15 min AMRAP

10 body rows
9 box jumps - 24 inch.
8 push press

I really liked this workout, I only did 95 lbs on the push press and got 9 rounds and for me this was good.  I guess I could have done the 115lbs but form is really importand to me so I will work on more weight as I get stronger.  See you next time at another Crossfit

Crossfit SOCO - Colorado Springs, CO Aug 22!

Hi Everyone - I hope the WOD's are going well for you and wanted to share with you a WOD that I did while on business in Colorado Springs, CO.  The location is called Crossfit SOCO and is just about a mile from downtown Colorado Springs.  I jogged there from my hotel and I was a bit early for the 5:30PM WOD, I did check it out online and it looked like a good one.  Here are some pictures of the WOD and it was a doosy, the last 3 pictures are with me in them, Parisjat suggest that I have someone take pictures of me during the WOD instead of just snaping photos of the location, hope you like them.  The warm up was good and plently of stretching as well.  We also did snatch grip deadlift pulls 3-3-2-2-1, this was a great exercise for me as well cause I dont do them that much.

Not sure if you can see exactly what the WOD was so here it is.

"Anerobic Beast day"
In 2 minutes
3 to 5 Wall Climbs - lying on the floor in push up position with feet against the wall, climp up the wall using your feet and hands until your chest is flush with the wall.
10 squat thrusts - just like a burbee without the push up
10 pull ups
10 BB Squat jumps with 45lb bar bell
10 explosive push ups, basically a clap push up
200 meter run

Rest for 5 minutes
5 rounds

SO, if you could not finish this in 2 minutes you had to modify the reps so that's what I did.  There was only one person who I saw doing RX, I had to modify to either 7 to 8 reps per exercise which worked pretty well for me.  As I said earlier this was a killer and I mean killer workout.  At the end of each round, I could barely breathe, I think it was that I was exhasted, plus the altitude gets to you, Colorado Springs is about 6K feet up. 

Everyone at this box was super nice and very friendly.  The facility was huge and they had tons of equipment, pull up bars, rings to do muscle ups, and much more.  I will definately be back to this location.  See you next time at a Crossfit in your neighborhood!   SAU.

SFO Crossfit - one more time

Ok, I have not written about a crossfit twice in a row but I was in SFO again and so I was able to blog about this location again.  This time I went to the 4:30 pm class on Monday Aug 8th and Tuesday morning 6 am on the 9th.  The 4:30 pm WOD was lead by a guy named Angel but he was not an "angel" to those who were partisipating.  II was there a bit early and had time to practice my DU and he told me to keep that jump rope with me as I will get to practice much more during today's WOD.  This is good for me cause you know that I currently struggle with DU's.

The really nice of this box is that they always do a nice warm up and really good stretching. 

200 meter run
50 DU
200 meter run
50DU

Then we did the normal stretching but then we did some group warm ups.  Everyone had to hang from a bar and hold their legs at a ninty degree angle or some modified version for 20 seconds for 5 rounds, then we practiced hand stand walks which only 2 of the 30 people there could do so, instead we had to hold a plank position for 5 minutes with our feet on a box or in a hand stand position with your feet against the wall, lastly we did "ab" work.  Everyone had to hold a bow position with hands outstretched and rock back and forth for 30 seconds for 5 sets, then when we thought that was over, we had to do 20 more sit ups, not so much fun.

Finally to the WOD.

Forward Lunges with 95#
DU's

15 reps
12 reps
9 reps

So, overall a very good workout and especially great for me as I need the help on DU's and now happy to report that I was able to do 16 in a row.  They use the Buddy Lee magic JR and I just ordered 2 of them for Parisjat and I to use. 

2 WOD at 6 am on Aug 9th.

The only reason I am doing a second entry is because Kelly the owner of SFO Crossfit was teaching and I have to say, he is quite an amazing teacher.  We did a similar type of warm up but right after we did the warm up we went into a metabolic workout, very dynamic and he showed me so much about really using our core in many of the workouts especially the dead lifts which we did for this work out. 

The WOD was

Dead lift - Use your body weight
burbee box jumps

12 reps
9 reps
6 reps

5 rounds for time

When we got started with the dead lifts Kelly immediately came over to help me with form, I thought I was doing pretty well but really not so well.  My bad was curved and I really needed extra help on keeping my back very straight.  This was very frustrating for me but very good for me to hear and I was able to correct it.  Kelly had to correct me 3 times on my dead lifts which tells me that I have been doing dead lifts incorrectly all this time, oh well at least I have the correct form for next time.  That's not all, Kelly told me that when I was doing burpees that my feet need to land competely flat and not on my heels or toes.  According to Kelly landing on either your toes or heels could result in a torn ACL or other knee issues.  So, moving forward I will be focusing more on form and techique instead of time when doing either of these two movements.

I have included some extra pictures of the view from their location on clear days and their restrooms...thou shall not comment or complain about your bathrooms facilities unless you have portapotties as well.

All for now, see you at the next Crossfit somewhere soon........SAU

Crossfit San Fran

Crossfit San Francisco July 28, 2011- Next up on the list was a Crossfit that I was looking forward to seeing, San Francisco on the Presideo.  My hotel was about 3 miles from the box so i ran there for the 6 am class and took a taxi back, you will understand why I took the taxi back after you see what we had to do.

The location is quite nice, right on the water with a fantastic view of the Golden Gat

e Bridge, however it was foggy this morning so couldn't see much.    This is a location that is located completely outside and in the back loading dock of a outdoor retail store, and looks like there gear was stored in 20' freight containers.  They had 3 climbing ropes attached to the stairing leading up to a second store floor.There was some cover but not much so I suppose you just workout in the elements? 

I was the second to arrive and soon there were 21 people there for a 6 am workout.Everyone was either practicing DU's or some type of warm up before the WOD began.  The warm up was as follows;

run 200 meters
20 push ups
20 sit ups
20 walking lunges
run back to the box

running jump ropes 200 meters
20 push ups
20 sit ups
20 walking lunges
running jump rope back to the box.

WOD
Sled pushing - 130# - some others did 180# but I was happy with our weight.
We were in groups of 5 people and we were to push the sled about 40 yards and back and do it a total of 5 times each.  Sounds not too bad but after you do the outbound push you realize that you are in for a long WOD.  It tooks us about 40 minutes to finish this one, mostly becuause the last 2 seem to take forever.  Now you know why I took a taxi back to my hotel instead of running back, I was toast!

Thanks to Corine who was the instructor and to Juliet the owner for allowing me to workout at you location,   See you next time!

Crossfit Belltown - Seattle, WA

Well this is the begining of my blog about Crossfit locations in cities that I travel to.  What I hope to do is educate other crossfitters on what is going on at other locations in the US. 

First on the list was Crossfit Belltown in Seattle, WA  Great location in the heart of Belltown and WOW what an amazing location.  If you like your crossfit like you like your Pottery barn, this is your place, very nice, very modern and very functional.  Check out the pictures, everything was decorated in wood finish, nice touch!  They have nice lockers, showers and all the fancy stuff you may or may not want in your crossfit but it seems to work for them.

I went to the 6 am class and did the WOD with 6 other crossfitters, the trainer was Brandin and he was super to work with.  We did a nice warm up of the following;

2 rounds of

10 squats
10 pass thrus
15 ab mat sit ups
10 overhead squats
10 lateral lunges
20 double unders.

Then the WOD was this.  Brandin called the pull ups, "book ends!"  I like that.

30 pull ups -
21 Thrusters (115#/75#)
50 double unders or 150 singles
21 Hang power cleans (115#/ 75#)
50 double unders
21 overhead squats (115#/75#)
50 double unders
21 burpees
30 pull ups

At first look,you know that this is a killer WOD and I mean that in a good and not so good way.  I will tell you that I did the 115# thrusters and hang power cleans but towards the end, there was no way, I mean no way that I was doing 115# on the overhead squats, so I did 75# which for me is really good. Plus this one got me to improve on my double unders which are in dire need of help.  However, Brandin was able to show me a nice trick which helped!  Thanks!   Great job by the other 6 am crossfitters, I forgot your most of your names except for Brian ( who loaned me a jump rope) but I will do a better job of remembering it next time.

Overall I liked this location and the trainer I worked with.  Later that day, Parisjat my wife went to the 4:30 PM class and did the same WOD with Eric and Nadia(owners) and she loved it, I guess that is because she loves double unders, why you ask? I think it is because she rules at them. Thanks to the owners Eric and Nadia for welcoming us to your box and see you again soon!

See you next time!  Crossfit OUT!  SAU