Posts from — March 2010

Here at CrossFit Santa Rosa we are committed to bringing you the best equipment possible. Starting next week we will add a new piece to our arsenal, The Shake Weight. Now you may question the validity of this instrument because its recently been catching lots of attention on TV. The Shake Weight however is a fitness revolution. By harnessing the power of “dynamic inertia” the shake weight provides you an unrivaled workout stimulus. Dynamic inertia was something davinci sketched and wrote about but could not construct, like the helicopter. Utilizing this breakthrough in technology the shake weight provides you a “240 rep per minute” rate of workoutness, that’s CRAZY!

The shakeweight was used by the Bulgarian weightlifting team when they dominated on the World Stage. Olympic officials, when searching their bags for steroids, instead found The Shake Weight. It is “Science Fact” and time tested by every other weightlifting team on the planet.

Again, please approach this with an open mind. This would appear to fly in the face of CrossFit’s excercise criteria, but this is an exception Jo and I are willing to make.

Please note that we will be closed Saturday, March 27th. We’re headed to the NorCal Sectional Qualifiers for the 2010 CrossFit Games! Check that link for updates over the weekend, and also check the CrossFit main page over the next several days, as there’s likely to be some video from the NorCal qualifiers posted there.

Thomas already posted A thought, or two, on sleep, but Mark Sisson over at Mark’s Daily Apple recently posted a new Definitive Guide to Sleep. This is a must read, people. Seriously. Read it. And go ahead a follow any of the dozens of links he’s provided, ’cause there’s some good stuff there too.

Lastly, you know how Thomas and I tell you to take fish oil? We give you a formula -1 gram for every 10 pounds of lean body mass- but that means you need to calculate your lean body mass, then see how many grams there are per dose of your fish oil and, well, even I just end up taking a few handfuls every day, not really paying good attention to the quantity. Well the good folks at Whole Nine have come up with an online calculator to figure out just how much of your brand of fish oil you need to be taking, based on your current diet and lifestyle. It’s the Robb Wolf Fish Oil Calculator, named after NorCal’s own nutrition guru Robb Wolf (whose website is linked in our right column). I’m supposed to take between 14 and 20 pills a day, depending on how beat up I am. And I thought my couple handfuls was a lot!

Cheer us on from afar over the weekend! Or if you’re feeling up for an adventure, come on down to the qualifiers in San Jose. Spectator tickets are now only $15 a person for Saturday – check here for more info. If we don’t see you there, see you next week at the box!

up the On Ramp…

And again, and again, and again. In our huge and growing list of March Personal Records, Si is listed not once, not thrice, but five times. Thursday night he upped his 1 rep max deadlift by fifty pounds! Seems that he’s finally recognizing how much of a mental game this is, and how darn strong he can be.

“Whether you think you can, or you can’t…you’re right.”

-Henry Ford

All of you came into the gym with a goal in mind. You wanted to get stronger, leaner, healthier etc. Some of you had a more specific mark in mind; bigger total, muscle up, double unders.

If you are one of those people who have reached their goal, Congratufreakinglations! But may I suggest you establish another goal to set your sights on. Having a goal is an excellent way to stay focused with your training.

Some of us have changed our mind during our time at the gym. When you first came in you filled out a questionnaire. One of the questions asked you what your goals were. Do you remember what you put down? If so, high five. If you don’t remember then look at your sheet and see what you put down.

What if what you put down no longer matches your current thinking. TELL US! We are here to help you reach your goals. The more we know about where you want to be, the better we can facilitate your progress.

This is a classic side by side of two very different athletes. For various reasons, many hormonal, the body composition of an endurance athlete is much different than that of an athlete spending most their time in a shorter and more intense domain.

Which do you think is more apt to tackle life’s challenges?

It’s sad but true that not everyday can be the best day of our lives, in real life and in the gym. A coach once told me, “You’ll have more bad days than good.” Her comment was in reference to training days. But either way I don’t believe that, because much of what makes a day “bad” is how it’s percieved.

Regardless, you can’t walk into the gym everyday expecting to put out the performance of a lifetime. You lose a little sleep here, you eat a little shitty there, you get in a fight with your significant other and all of a sudden your at less than a 100%, whether you know it or not.

Everything that takes place in your life outside the gym, gets carried in the gym. You can do your best to leave it at the front door, and that helps, but it’s not a cure. When your having one of those days where your performance is less than epic, do not exacerbate the REAL problem by stressing yourself with your frustration over said performance. Just be stoked you get to push weight with people you’ve come to know as friends and enjoy your time.

Then go home, sleep good, eat right, and destroy it the next day.