Category — Training Protocols and Strategies

Everyone feeling fast? Don’t worry, you soon will be…

This Monday night we will begin the bi-weekly track WODs. Meet promptly at 6pm at the Santa Rosa JC running track (located on Bear Cub Way just off of Mendocino).  The parking around there might be tricky, so expect to park a few blocks away and jog there. As this will be our first track workout, we will see how things work at the JC and may try some other tracks in the future.

This week, we will focus on running drills to reinforce good mechanics and we will run some 800, 400 and 200 meter intervals to establish baseline times. For anyone who hasn’t tried running on the track before, get excited. You will notice many benefits after adding some speed-work into your program: improved running technique and efficiency – you’ll go faster even when running slow and long, improved body composition, decreasing WOD times, and you might even find yourself hating running a little less.

We’re excited to announce the addition of two new classes to the schedule beginning this week:

Strength Class on Tuesday Nights

Starting January 17th, Tuesday night will have a new feel. The 5:30-6:30 pm CrossFit class will move to 5:00-6:00, and a new Strength class will be added from 6:00-8:00 pm. The longer format will allow time for multiple lifts and adequate recovery between sets, ensure time for some auxiliary lifts to compliment the strength protocol, and provides additional time at the end of class for some focused mobility work.

So why change the format and add additional emphasis to build strength? Let’s hear from our one of our favorite strength coaches, Mark Rippetoe: “Strength means way more than the ability to generate force against a resistance. It has always been the means by which people accomplished things that required them to interact with their environment.”

This class will be focused on foundational lifts: squats (back/front), presses (overhead/bench), and the deadlift. “So, you ask,” says Rippetoe, “why do we squat, press, deadlift? Because they work all the muscles and joints in the body, they simulate normal human movement patters, and they produce strength appropriate to all uses for which the muscles and joints will be put.”

The Strength class will run in 6 week training cycles, but you are welcome to drop in any time.

Track WOD every other Monday night

Every other Monday night at 6-7pm beginning on January 3oth, I (Ryan) will be leading the Track WOD, a structured workout to improve your running speed and efficiency. The hour-long class will include form drills, analysis of biomechanics, and interval training. The Track WOD will be held at the JC track; just meet there by 6 pm to join the class.

Please note that the 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm CrossFit classes will go on as usual at the gym. We’ll post a reminder announcement about this a few days before the first class.

We hope you take advantage of these great new offerings!

Olympic Weightlifting class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon. Want to develop strength, power, speed, coordination? This is how. Class runs in 4-6 week training cycles, but you are welcome to drop in any time and try it. Today was the beginning of a new cycle:

We are so proud of Meghan Reeves for all the hard work she’s done to achieve her goal of passing the fire academy test! Meghan came to us with this specific goal, and we designed a combination of private and group training to get her where she needed to be to pass this test.

Here’s her story in her own words:

“I trained on my own for a year before going to the fire academy.  I ran, lifted weights, stretched and threw a 24-foot ladder around.  I trained but, lacking expertise, I didn’t train the right way and I wasn’t strong enough to beat the drill time limits at academy. ‘You have heart and know the drills, but you need to take a year off and gain 20 pounds of muscle then try again.’ That’s what the Captains told me when I mustered out of academy after five weeks and just two days before graduation. So, at the urging of a co-worker (Spittler!) I joined an On Ramp class at CrossFit Santa Rosa.

The difference was astounding!  After six months of regular CrossFit followed by six weeks of one-on-one strength training (Shane!) I went back to fire academy and smoked it!  There is no substitute for expertise, and I thank the coaches at CrossFit Santa Rosa for utilizing theirs to make me a better cadet and help me graduate.”

Fantastic work, Meghan. Congratulations!

It’s the week of Winter Solstice for us here in the northern hemisphere of planet Earth, and dang if it isn’t cold in Sonoma County. When it’s this cold, please be sure to arrive early to class so you can spend extra time warming up. Even though we generally give you ten minutes for the warm up, you need extra work to get your body prepared for strength work in weather like this. Row, run, or jump rope a little longer than usual before getting into dynamic stretching.

Please note that we are closed this weekend, Saturday and Sunday 12/24-25. Enjoy the holiday weekend, and we’ll see you Monday!

This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting a CrossFit Endurance Seminar. CrossFit Endurance is specialty program that combines CrossFit training protocols with intervals, time and tempo trials to prepare athletes for single sport (e.g. running) or multi-sport (e.g. triathlon) endurance events. CFSR coaches Ryan, Leah, and Joanna attended, and athletes and coaches from places as far as Oregon and Alberta, Canada traveled here for the seminar.

One major focus of the weekend was on the skill of running. Like all the exercises we practice here, your running will become more efficient – easier and faster – by learning and practicing proper mechanics and movement. If you hate running, you can learn how to be better at it. If you love running, you can get faster and still keep your body healthy.

If you like the sounds of that, keep your eyes and ears open for upcoming announcements with more info about our plans for creating a running program. You interested?

The close of our latest training cycle in Olympic Lifting class brought Snatch PRs for Allison and Ryan. Great work.

Mark’s wod score: Sweaty. Haha! What about you? Do you pay attention to your time or score? Why or why not? What’s it like for you when we do an unscored or “not for time” wod?

Attend Olympic Lifting class twice a week, with CrossFit classes sprinkled in? Eat colorful vegetables, pastured meats, a variety of good fats, and eliminate inflammatory foods like sugars, grains, and dairy? Muster up your mojo, your drive to achieve, your inner badass?

Ask Allison. She’s been coming to Oly class regularly for at least six weeks, and even has her own program. A few weeks ago she embarked on a Whole30 and is feeling great. Yesterday was the end of her first training cycle. The result of all this?

Pretty pretty PRs!

New Snatch personal record, 71lbs/32K.

New Clean & Jerk personal record, 98lbs/44.5K

Over the last two weekends during the Running Skills workshop, Suzy had us do this exercise where we pushed down on each other’s shoulders to gauge whether we were holding ourselves in proper alignment while standing. Suzy talked about a straight line from the shoulders to the hips to the knees to the ankles. If a person wasn’t in proper alignment when pushed down, s/he crumpled under the pressure. If properly aligned, there was no give.

Carl Paoli calls it “The Position”. Kelly Starrett refers to it as being “organized”. And in the video below, Lauri Galassi talks about being “stacked”. Different coaches use different language for it, but they’re all referring to the same thing: the proper body position you need to focus on if you want better athletic performance and/or a healthier body in your everyday life and into your future. We all want those things, right?

We’ve been practicing this position regularly in the box with various exercises: our virtuous push ups, strict pull ups, and dumbbell overhead holds, to name a few. Practice, practice, practice this position. Standing in line at the store? Get yourself stacked and organized into the position. Warming up with some burpees? Get yourself stacked and organized into the position.

Linked below are two CrossFit Journal “Previews”. To see the videos in their entirety, subscribe to the CrossFit Journal. $25 for a whole year of daily videos and articles that are guaranteed be very helpful to your training and meeting your performance goals.

First, from Lauri Galassi. This is a preview of Part I of a series of videos from a workshop she taught on handstands. In the last minute she uses a wood doll to demonstrate exactly what Suzy did with us in the running workshop where we pushed down on each other. Check it out:

Next is a preview of one piece in a series with both Kelly Starrett and Carl Paoli, Superstars. For real. The series is about “The Position,” aka Midline Stability, and its transfer to everything from the push up to double unders to…well, every human movement.