Crossfit - Armoury - Edmonton, Canada

Hey Fellow Crossfitters - So after the WOD at Crossfit Calgary, I was lucky enough to be in Edmonton which is about a 3 hour drive from Calgary.

Crossfit Armoury is located in a business park in a similar location to CFSWB.  Easy to find and plenty of parking.

I had also emailed them to let them know I was coming and Jason one of the trainers was super nice on email and said to please stop by and WOD with them and there would NOT be a drop-in fee!  I wanted to buy a shirt but nothing really caught my eye so I passed.  Here was the warm up and WOD ( note no pull ups or push ups because if there was I would not be WOD'ing with them)

Warm up
Knee highs
butt kicks
jump skips
DU - 25
OH squats with dowel - 15
pull ups 10

Then
10 x 200 m sprints EMOM.  I knew that this would be a challenge and it was.  After just 3 rounds I was feeling the burn, it didn't help that Edmonton is about 2K feet above sea level so the elevation was tough on my lungs as well

WOD
21-15-9
Deadlifts - 225lb
Front squats - 135lb

So after the sprint work, it was time for the WOD.  I was actually very excited to do this WOD for the simple fact that I could do the weight but how long it was going to take me remained to be seen. So, we went through a series of warm ups with both deadlifts and front squats so that the trainers could see that we could do the weight and I was ready to go.  Oh yeah, one more thing, we were only allowed to use one bar for this workout, so you started on the deadlift at 225 and when you finished the 21 reps you removed a 45# plate from each side and did 21 reps of front squat with 135# and the same for 15 reps and 9 reps.

OK, it was 3-2-1- Go and we were off.  The first set of deadlift's went well,not as fast and I wanted to go but not bad.  I managed to get through the first set of front squats fairly well, but it was the second set of 15 reps where I really began to feel this one.  The weights really began to feel super heavy and after 15 reps where done, I moved on to set of 9.  I was almost 8 minutes in the WOD, but it felt much longer and I heard that voice in my head telling me to pick up the bar, but my body wasn't responding.  I was just standing over the bar sweating and finally something clicked and I reached down for the final reps of the deadlift and soon after I was finishing the front squats.  What made this WOD tough was changing the weights back and forth from 225 to 135.  Also, the deadlifts felt good but it was more the front squats because I had to clean the weight and do the front squat and it felt like I was lifting a F*$#ing house. 
I finished with a time of 12:35 which I felt was respectable, it felt good to be done with this one!

Hope you get a chance to do a WOD like this with the heavy weights, it certainly takes you to the outer limits of your comfort zone but allows you to find that place inside of you to dig deep and persevere!

Good luck!  SAU

Crossfit Calgary - That wasn't very nice....eh?

Hey Crossfitters - Before I headed up to Calgary, I did some research and found Crossfit Calgary . I gave them a call and spoke with Ally.  I told her that I was going to be up there soon and would it be OK to WOD with them?  She said that they loved having visitors and to stop by anytime.

So, there I was in Calgary and heading to their location and as you can see from the pictures, they are located in a very populated area with lots to stores and shops.  It actually looked like this location was formally a Oil Can Henry's or something similar.  Anyway, lots of equipment, pull up bars, C2 rowers, but no built in squat racks, they were the portable ones like we have at CFSWB.  However, they did have bathrooms with a shower in each, a very nice idea!

I was there for the 6 pm WOD and walked in the door and the person who met me was Colin, who was one of the trainers there.  I introduced myself to him and Ally was there as well.  They were all very nice and welcoming.  I signed the wavier and got started on my warm up,  plus they did not charge a drop in fee!  However, before that Colin ( who was 56 and in amazing shape showed me how to tape my hands as we would be doing a bunch of pull ups)...  See below:

Warm up
500 m row, 30 seconds fast and 30 seconds slow and keep alternating
10 box jumps
10 arm circles in various directions (forward, reverse, ext)
10 air squats

WOD
15-30-45 - Push ups / pulls ups
mandatory 5 min rest, then....
45 - 30-15 push ups / pull ups

Yes, that is correct, it is 180 of each.  The trainer for this class was Erin who made it very clear what she expected from everyone on push ups, chest must touch the floor and elbows must lock out every time and the same went for pull ups.  Full ROM and if you needed to modify either the pull ups or push ups by all means do so.   She had some very good advice as well, do not start this WOD fast, it was a chipper.  Other than Colin teaching me how tape up my hands to avoid ripping, this would prove to be great advice.

Then after a bit of stretching, it was 3.2.1. go time.

I started by doing 15 of each the push ups and pull ups in the first round of 15, then to sets of 10 in the round of 30, then I forget how many I was doing in the round of 45, but it wasn't much and all I was thinking about was the 5 min rest that was coming. I just kept telling myself to keep moving and get as many reps as I could muster.  The 5 min. rest was nice but then this WOD got tough on the second round of 45-30-15.  This is where you had to dig real deep and just keep chipping away.  I finished the first set in 7:55 and finished the entire WOD at 22:15.

Overall, this WOD looked like Hell and that is exactly what it felt like but it is what we do as crossfitters, enjoy the SUCK and this one did that!  Thanks to Erin, Colin, and everyone at Crossfit Calgary.  You are great and very welcoming!

 

Crossfit Scottsdale - working on some snatches

Hey Fellow Crossfitters - On my recent trip to Arizona, I was lucky enough to be with a couple of friends, Josh McDonald and Nick Clancy, most of you remember Nick who was a former member of CFSWB and just recently move to the Arizona heat with his girlfriend and Josh who is a friend and crossfitter at CFSWB was down visiting Nick during the same time, so we all got to WOD together and man was it good!

This box has been around for several years and you can see from the pictures, it is quite extensive, many pull up bars, squat racks, sand bags, ropes and so much more, they can do it all here!  In fact they have hosted Level 1 Trainers course and a Crossfit HQ demo WOD.

So Nick is a soon to be trainer at Crossfit Scottsdale and so he set it up to have us WOD at 7am.  Honestly I am not sure if they have a drop in fee but we did not pay one so I picked up a T-shirt.  We arrived at the box a bit early to take care of some paperwork.  Then we spent some time rolling out with the foam rollers and took a look a today's WOD as follows;

3 position snatch skill set - work up to your max where you can do a full squat with all three positions
1 - from the floor
2 - from just above the knee
3 - from the hip crease

Then
10 min EMOM - Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes
1 - Power snatch - choose a weight that challenges you, I choose 95#
1 - burpee with high jump
The snatch increases by one rep on every minute but you stick with just one burpee.

However, before the WOD, Tyler our coach for the class took us through a nice warm up.

400 m run
inch worms with push ups
Sampson stretch with twist
knee highs
butts kicks
bear crawls
side steps

Then we went right into the Burgener warm up and got our weights out for the 25 minutes of snatch skill work. So I started with the bar and was able to work up to 115 doing all 3 positions, and by far the most challenging movement was snatching from the hip crease into a full squat.

Before the WOD Tyler said that we could either do a power snatch or a full snatch into a squat, so thinking that I wanted to really push myself out of my comfort zone, I thought that I would do 115# into a full squat, HA! I quickly learned that this would be a mistake.  Right when he said 3-2-1 GO I pulled the bar but I didn't get under it and failed big time, I fell right on my ass.  Tyler quickly came over and help me strip a 10# plate from each side and then I attempted the 95# squat snatch and failed yet again, so I guess I was going to power snatch, which is what I did and after I finished my burpee to a high jump, I was only left with 20 seconds of rest, Damn!  So I learned an important lesson here, be realistic of your goals before the WOD especially right after a strength workout.

Now, after round 2, I was able to catch my breath but when we got to round 5 this WOD began to bite back.  You had to increase the snatches and still get a burpee but rest time was getting thin.  The last 2 rounds were the killer, I finished round 9 with 10 seconds left and finished my 10th round when Tyler called time.  I fell over and lay there trying to catch my breath.

I looked back at Josh and Nick and they were both dripping sweat with the classic blank stare in the eyes,  "man that sucked, but in a good way!"  and I thought to myself, that is the beauty of Crossfit, you can take as little as 2 movements and put them together and that combination will take it to you!

Tyler was nice enough to take some pictures of us during the WOD.  A special Thank you to him and Crossfit Scottsdale!  I will be back!

Crossfit San Francisco - I heart you

Hey Crossfitters - I hope that you are all doing well and getting your WOD on!

On a recent trip to San Francisco I had the pleasure of visiting a pretty famous Crossfit in San Francisco.  This Crossfit is owned by Kelly Starret.  If you don't know who he is, he is the writer behind the Mobility WOD and if you have not seen this, I suggest you check it out.  He has copious amounts of information related to mobilliy and flexibility.  You can find a link to his site from the link below.  The box is located right close to the marina district near the presidio

http://sanfranciscocrossfit.com/

During this trip, I wanted to get to one of Kelly's classes but the time slots just didn't work which left me with the 6 am slot.  This box does not charge for drop in crossfitters but instead you make a donation to their local charity, nice idea!  They also do not post the WOD's the night before, so good and bad because I do like to cherry pick but not in this case.  Also, this is the only crossfit that I know about that is outside, they do have a covered area but its small and I have only been there when the weather was nice and quite honestly I can't imagine what it would be like to WOD in the rain.....

From my hotel, it was about 3 miles to the box and decided to jog there, so I left at 5:15 which should  have given me plenty of time, at least that is what I thought.  I got about half way when I ran into construction signs and a major detour and when your running this early in the morning in the dark it can be challenging to find your way around.  At one point I was pretty turned around and honestly thought that I might not make it to the class.  At one point I could see where I needed to get to but didn't know how to get there.  Eventually I kept running and while I had to take the long way there, I did make it.  Yes, I was 10  minutes late and thankfully there was no penalty for being late!

I arrived and after introducing myself to the instructor, I joined the 20 or so crossfitters in a warm up and stretch.  The WOD for this day was strength and skill work, Wow, I really enjoy doing strength work for a couple of reasons, first of all I need to get stronger and I have found it helpful to get tips, feedback, and instruction from other trainers which has proved beneficial for my form.

WOD
Back squats to a box - find your max and then do 3 sets of 5 at 80%
then
Find your max box jump and hand stand skill work.

During the warm up, I met up with a nice kid who was back from school and training at crossfit until he heads back for the fall term.  His name was Gary and he was on the rowing team at a small school in PA and he really enjoyed crossfit.  We partnered up for the back squats.  The idea here was to focus on really moving the hips back and sticking your butt out and keeping the knees stable while moving slowly to the box, we used a 18 inch box and after finding our max we moved to 3 sets of 5.  This felt different than a normal back squat and more difficult.  Best I could muster was 195 and so we moved on to our sets.

After our sets we moved to max box jumps and while rotating through this you were supposed to work on hand stand walks.  Honestly, I do not remember what height I got to but Gary went higher than anyone that morning!  Way to go Gary!  I managed to put in some good hand stand walks, nothing super special but progress.

If you are ever in the downtown area and want to see how they do crossfit in San Fran, I suggest you visit Kelly Starett!  Thanks again for allowing me to visit and WOD with you all.

Until we WOD again.
Steve Umscheid

Level 4 - Seattle, Row, Row, Row your boat!

Dear Readers -

On a recent trip to Seattle, I had the opportunity to visit Level 4 Crossfit in Seattle.  It is located close to Ballard, just out of Seattle and very close to the water in a huge, and I mean really huge warehouse.  I think it was used in the past to repair boats.  You can see from the pictures how big it was, sorry no video this time.  Tons of equipment, so many pull up bars, very nice!

Anyway, I was at the 5 pm class with 12 other dedicated Crossfitters.  Warm up was simple mobility and stretching with the bands which I had never done, and so good to do.  The WOD was simple in its design and one that I had never done, time spent on the rower.  The trainer did not tell us exactly what the WOD would be ,only that we would be doing a ton of rowing, cool! 

The trainer had us arrange the rowing machines so that we made a circle and partner up with someone.  After a brief lesson on proper rowing technique, which I was corrected on, we took turns rowing at a specific pace.  For example, the first set we had to row at 20 strokes per min for 10 pulls, then we increased to 25, then to 30, then to 35, and that was our warm up.

The WOD was going to be row for 1 minute and then while your parter rows, you rest for 1 minute.  The idea here was to go all out for 1 minute while you try and catch your breath during the off minute while trying to maintain the same distance or strokes per min you did on the previous round.  So, a 20 min WOD with 10 min of actual work and 10 minutes of OMG I can't breath

What did I think?  I guess if you like the feeling of almost puking after each round and then trying to get yourself back together in a min...fun..then you can say I had fun.  By far a much more challenging WOD that I expected,  in fact I think I learned more about rowing in this 20 minutes  then I had ever before!

If you have never done this type of WOD, I suggest it for sure. Why? First off, I am not the best rower and this helped me to improve on my speed and efficiency and in it's simplest form was a great workout!

Thanks to all the crossfitters at Level 4 in Seattle!  What a great Crossfit location it is! 

Until we WOD again!

Steve

Crossfit Refinery - Boise, ID

Hey Crossfitters - It was my yearly trip to Boise and looking forward to visiting Crossfit Refinery.  It's a pretty good sized box located in downtown Boise.  It's easy to find and there is plenty of street parking.  The plan was to go to the 5 PM wod.  The wod for this day was strength training. Front squats 2-2-2-2-2 with a short Met-con at the end of class.  I was very excited about this WOD for a couple of reasons.  First, I suck a Front squats so any improvement would be appreciated and secondly this WOD was a nice off day for me.

There was only 3 people in the class and our trainer was Jake who took us through a nice warm up which included a new stretch called spider man crawls( these turned out to be great for opening up the hips)  This would be key for front squats. 

So then we moved to the room with the racks to do the front squats.  Jake did a great job of coaching form and I was able to reach a new PR of 215 lbs.  Thanks Jake for the help.

After the front squats we did a short Met-con as follows;

Row 300 m
20 Thrusters - 95lbs
30 box jumps - 24 in
Row 300 m

While it only took 5:15 seconds, it felt much longer.  If someone were to ask me what was the hardest part of the WOD, I would have to say the box jumps because coming from thrusters it was horrible and seemed like I was never going to get to 30.

Check out the pictures and if you are ever in Boise, check out Crossfit Refinery! 

Happy Crossfitting!

X-Factor Portland, OR - Crossfit Level I Cert

Hello Everyone - This blog is slightly delayed because work and life have been very busy and that is the way it goes.

So, I did not tell very many people that I was doing this but I was signed up for the Crossfit Level 1 certification in Portland on June 30 and July 1st.  For those of you who are familiar with the training, its a 2 day lecture with hands on training and 2 surprise WOD's.  There are 5 trainers from the Crossfit HQ Training staff that teach the course.  At this training it was Todd, Jesse, Tommy, Kurtis and of course Nadia, and if you read the blog about my trip to Seattle you know who she is.  This training session was sold out with 55 soon to be Crossfit trainers.  Anyway, each trainer takes a portion of the class instruction and does a review of the information in a classroom like style and then we break out into smaller groups of 10-12 and we take part in some hands on work.

The information was presented in an easy to understand way.  Each of the trainers had their own unique presentation style which kept the infromation fun and enjoyable.  There was copious amounts of information; everything from the definition of Crossfit, what GPP is, the definition of Power and Intensity, to the Crossfit Definition of Fitness and why and  how each Crossfit bench mark WOD's were created.  Listed below are a few of the definitions;

What is Crossfit - Constantly Varied Functional Movements done at High Intensity

GPP - General Physical Preparedness - Gets you ready for anything, anytime, and anywhere

Force (large load) X Distance (long distance) / Time = Power.  Power = Intesity.

Crossfit definition of Fitness - Work capacity across broad time and model domains

We went over proper form of the air squat, front squat, and OH squat, Press, Push press, push jerk, dead lift, SDHP, med ball cleans, The GHD machine and so much more.  They also touched on how to correct mistakes for each one and how to use progressions if someone cannot do the movement with full range of motion.  We talked about push ups, pull ups, gymnastics moves, cardio moves, and how to incorporate these.  They touched on food, diet and what works for Crossfit.  I could go on an on about the information but will leave it at that for now.

After lunch and a few more lectures, it was time to do the WOD.  We had been preped through out the day on what the WOD might be and sure enough it was the defining Crossfit WOD.....FRAN!  Everyone would do it, wheather you choose to do it RX or scaled.  FRAN was one of those bench mark WOD's that should be done in under 10 minutes so if you could not do it RX you had to choose a weight that was right for you. 

21-15-9 of thrusters and pull ups.  95 lbs for guys and 65 lbs for girls.

Honestly, I have a love hate relationship with FRAN and I think most Crossfitters would agree with me.  I mean I like the WOD but have this inner fear of her.  I know that I can finish it but I fear the pain that comes after the first set of 21 reps, it seems as though the last sets of 15 and 9 are miles away.  Somehow I made it though again with a time of 5:17 which for me is very good, I shaved over a minute off my time.

In the second day we touched on other Crossfit subjects and one last WOD.  Honestly I cannot remember if it was a 7 or 8 minute AMRAP but I do remember it was a triplet, meaning 3 movements; push ups, sit ups and MB cleans and again do not remember the number of reps per movement but do remember that that I got almost 7 rounds.

The class ended with a 50 question multiple choice test in which you had 45 minutes to complete and if you passed the test, you were qualified to be a Crossfit trainer.  So that was it for the certification class and sorry I did not take any pictures.  Looking back I wish I would have. 

So if any of your are interested in getting certified, I highly suggest it.  It's fun, informative, interactive and overall a great experience and besides,  life is all about experiences.  Plus you get to do FRAN!

Yes, I did pass........