Saturday

WOD:

As Many Rounds as Possible in 20 Minutes of:

20 Weighted Walking Lunges (one kettlebell 24kg/Men & 16kg/Women)

15 Box Jumps (24 inches)

10 Push Ups

Post rounds and thoughts to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

Stuart and Brian A. working some ring dips a few weeks ago

This Week: Be Prepared

As we close the “Be Prepared” week, here are some final thoughts.  You may not be perfect at everything and chances are, there are a few times that something will come up in a workout, and you can’t do the weight or you have to modify the movement.  Does that mean you weren’t prepared for it?  Maybe.  Chances are, you know it is one of your weaknesses, and you may mess around with practicing it in the gym before or after a workout, but do you really put a solid effort in to understanding how to get better at what you can’t do?  If you’re like 99% of us, you know you haven’t given that weakness enough attention.  You wait on it to come up in the programming in a workout, do the modification for it, promise yourself you’ll work on it every time you come to the gym, and like most New Year’s Resolutions, you stick to that for a couple of days.

Here’s the deal.  A lot of what we do is tough.  Some people are great at one thing and suck at another.  Some people can do tons of squats but no muscle up, some can move some weight but are horrible at pull ups.  The trick is to not wait on a workout to point out your weaknesses, but to take the initiative to practice during your warm up and after your workout.  If you don’t know what to do to understand how to get better at whatever it is you’re struggling with, find a trainer, or even another athlete in the gym who can do the movement well and get their pointers.  Sometimes you’ll find that when you chat up each other in the gym, you might be really good at something they cannot do and vice versa.  Start practicing and seeking knowledge on how to get better at what you hate.  It will help keep you prepared to battle your weaknesses in the gym. 

“Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.” ~Proverbs 19:2

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Friday

WOD:

“Jason”

100 Squats/5 Muscle Ups

75 Squats/10 Muscle Ups

50 Squats/15 Muscle Ups

25 Squats/20 Muscle Ups

Post time and thoughts to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

Dawn getting ready to move some weight

This Week: Be Prepared

How prepared are you?  Are you ready to compete?  Do you have what it takes to mentally and physically step up to the plate?  You compete with your old records and the records of others every time you walk in to the gym, and that’s what makes you better.  You may not care what someone else’s time was or how much weight they did, but instead you worry “did I do better than I did when this came up the last time?”  At Carolina CrossFit, we have built a community of support, but also a community that forces you to be better everytime you walk through our doors.  The trainers start with a nudge and holding people to a standard, but it’s you guys who keep that bar set high and demand that your peers maintain proper and consistent range of motion and intensity by policing each other.  But you also encourage each other and want to see the others succeed.

This Saturday, one of our own is competing in the CrossFit Games Qualifiers in Ohio.  She made the haul north to leave it all on the table and see where she shakes out.  We have seen her fight in the gym to be a better athlete and coach.  Sometimes she wins, sometimes it’s just not her day.  This never stops her from coming back for more, and that’s what makes her stronger.  Dawn, we are behind you, and we believe in you.  Win or lose, you had the guts and the heart to put it all out there for the world to see.  You have done the research, trained hard, and made great strides with hitting your goals.  You have an entire gym behind you, and whether you finish first or last, the support will still be here when you get home.

As a coach, let me personally say to you…I’m proud of you. You can do this.  Keep your mind strong, your heart in the fight, and DIG DEEP.

“If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.” ~ Richard Nixon

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Wednesday

WOD:

Power Snatch

3-3-3-3-3

Post loads and thoughts to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

Mike Burgener coaching his daughter Sage through a demo of the Power Snatch

For more great instructional videos, visit www.mikesgym.org

This Week: Be Prepared

How do you prepare for a lift day?  It’s not just physical preparation, but mental as well.  A good way to physically prepare is with a good warm up.  So often on lift days, we see a lot of you doing the CrossFit warm up, but there are warm ups for the lifts as well.  At Carolina CrossFit, we are huge fans of the “Burgener Warm Up” before olympic lifts.  The Burgener warm up is written on the white board, but if you are unsure of exactly how to execute it properly, you should have a trainer take you through it and watch your technique.  As coach Burgener always says, “Practice does not make perfect, PERFECT PRACTICE makes perfect.” So make sure that even if you are only doing the warm up with a PVC, that your technique is flawless.  If you’re not sure if you’re moving well, get a trained eye on you, don’t just assume you are doing it correctly and throw weight on the bar.

To prepare mentally, visualize yourself being successful on lift days, and get in to the routine.  Do not allow distractions to keep you from focusing on the task at hand.  Do not worry about what’s on the bar, just believe that you are strong enough and tough enough to move that weight.  Set yourself up for success by believing in your capabilities as an athlete and use that confidence to pull you through the lift session.  You have to WANT to do it, to move the weight, to be stronger than you thought you could be.  Never give up.

“The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear it if the spirit is crushed?” ~Proverbs 18:14

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Tuesday

WOD:

Two Rounds for Time of:

Row 2000 Meters

Run 800 Meters

Post time and thoughts to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

Real men wear pink.  Congrats to Josh & our other graduates from USC!

This Week: Be Prepared

It’s important to be prepared for lots of things, especially when you step through the doors of the gym.  Part of that preparedness is intensity.  It’s easy to pace yourself and “get a workout” out of whatever is posted that day, but that’s not what CrossFit is about.  Without the intensity, you will never achieve your full potential as an athlete.  I know, some of you are thinking, “I’m not an athlete, I work in an office,” but you’re missing the point.  We are all athletes in our own right, and pushing beyond what you think is possible is what will keep you in the game longer, make you faster and stronger, and give you a feeling of accomplishment that you didn’t think was possible.

Yesterday, we saw some awesome efforts! However, as trainers, we saw that some of you do not always work as hard as you should or has hard as you can.  Some of you turned over unbelievable run times on the 400 meters, yet when there is a 400 meter run in a workout, you “pace” yourself.  Now, we don’t expect that kind of max effort during all of the wods, but we do expect you to come close to your time from yesterday, not a full minute slower. For those of you who are still “pacing” yourselves, the time has come to graduate from the fear of letting go during a workout, and push the limits of your athletic capacity.  If you complete a WOD and recover instantly, aren’t out of breath, or consider “going for a run” after, then you did not push hard enough.  Yes boys and girls, this even applies on strength days. 

Anytime you step on the floor to begin a workout, you should be nervous, anxious, ready to get it over with, and bring all you’ve got to what’s about to go down.  When you’re finished, you should be proud knowing that you gave everything you had.  Don’t be content to walk away from the finished workout with something left in the tank.  Leave it on the floor and bring it.

“I will prepare, and some day my chance will come.” ~Abraham Lincoln

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Monday

WOD:

“Test Day 1″

Timed 400 Meter Sprint (Max Effort 1 attempt)

Max Pull Ups (1 attempt)

Max Vertical Jump for height(3 attempts)

Max Reps of Bodyweight Deadlift (1 attempt)

Each exercise will be scored individually.  You may rest as needed in between each effort. 

Post scores and thoughts to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

Do these guys look ready or what?

This Week: Be Prepared

Today’s workout is a little different.  It’s something new, but something fun.  So for the rules of the day, we’ll address each portion of the test one by one:

400 Meter Sprint (1 attempt): This will be a one attempt max effort run.  No rounds, no repeats, just once, so give it all you’ve got.  Ideally we’d like to see you all shake out somewhere that is appropriate for your current level of fitness, and believe me, the trainers know where you should stand, so no jogging, it is a sprint!!  A good time to shoot for is 65 to 75 seconds. 

Max Pull Ups (1 attempt): Once you get on the pull up bar, that’s it.  You can kip, deadhang, butterfly kip, switch from kipping to deadhang, switch your grip, etc…but the second that you drop from the bar, your effort is complete.  The standard is the same as always, your chin must clear the bar, and your elbows must lock at the bottom of the pull up.  For those of you that cannot do pull ups, you will complete as many pull ups as possible based on your usual method of scaling, meaning jumping or band pull ups.  This one will be one of the easiest to give up on, so literally, hang tough on these and the second you think of letting go of that pull up bar, try to do one more. For the chicks, we’d like to see 25 or more, and for the boys, 45 or more.

Max Vertical Jump for Height (3 attempts): Let’s take the opportunity to see how those cleans and snatches are paying off!  Did you know that many olympic lifters can have vertical jumps as high if not higher than many of the pro basketball players out there?  It’s true!  So on this portion of the test, you will have three opportunities to test your ups!  You may not take a step in to the jump.  You must start with both feet planted firmly on the ground and jump as high as you can with one arm fully extended and touch the wall.  We will take the highest of the three attempts.

Max reps of body weight deadlift (1 attempt): For the final exercise, we will load up a barbell with your body weight (yes girls, you have to tell us), and you will have one chance to deadlift that weight as many times as you can.  You may not pause in between reps and must continue a touch and go pace with the barbell with no rest.  To complete each lift, you must start with the barbell ON THE GROUND and stand all the way up with it and then touch the barbell back to the ground.  Reps will continue to be counted UNTIL you remove your hands from the bar or fail on the lift.  Remember, that even for the last lift to count, you must set the barbell back on the ground, you cannot release it from the top.

Good luck to everyone! 

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed.” ~ Proverbs 15:22

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Saturday

WOD:

Bottom to Bottom “Tabata” Squats

For 8 Rounds:

20 Seconds of Squats/10 Seconds of Rest

Rest will be in the bottom of the squat position (yes, even on the last rest)

Score is lowest number of squats achieved.  Meaning, if you score 20 in round one, but 8 in round 2, your score is 8 and that is the score that will be posted on the board.

After the WOD, take time to work on your Hand Stand Push Ups, Muscle Ups, and Pull Ups.

Post score and thoughts to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

Anna working throuh her first “Murph” with a vest!

This Week: Strong Women

As we bring this estrogen filled week to a close, I’ll end with this.  At the end of the day, when a woman is exhausted and has been stressed, pushed, and crushed by the demands of daily life, and hopefully a workout at CCF, she will still find room to LOVE.  They love without being asked or told, they love unconditionally, and they put their love for their families above all of their own needs. 

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.  It’s a day to honor the women in your lives, who have made you who you are.  Maybe it’s not your mom, maybe it’s your wife, aunt, sister, grandmother…Whether you are a male or female, this weekend, let the women in your life know how much they’ve impacted you, what they taught you, and most importantly, that you’ve noticed and that you care.

“Now you understand, just why my head’s not bowed.  I don’t shout or jump about or have to talk real loud.  When you see me passing, it ought to make you proud.  I say, it’s in the click of my heels, the bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, the need of my care, cause I’m a woman, phenomenally.  Phenomenal woman, that’s me.”   ~Maya Angelou

Top 5

Friday

WOD:

Run 800 Meters/50 Knees to Elbows

Run 800 Meters/50 Sit Ups

Run 800 Meters/50 Back Extensions

Post time and thoughts to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

Annie Sakamoto, an original CrossFit HQ Trainer, mentor, friend, and mommy of two, showing us how knees to elbows should (and shouldn’t) be done!

Video courtesy of CrossFit HQ as posted on YouTube

This Week: Strong Women

So, we’ve got it all covered right?  Our chicks are tough, determined, and smart.  That’s not all, they are so much FUN!  The women of CCF will talk your head off, laugh with you, and encourage you to smile when you feel like quitting.  Being funny is a good attritbute to have, especially in the stressful world we all live in.

What is the funniest thing you’ve seen or heard a woman do around our gym?  Post to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

“There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all.” ~Proverbs 31:29

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Wednesday

WOD:

“Crazy Cindy”

As Many Rounds as Possible in 20 Minutes of:

5 Dead Hang Pull Ups (No Kipping!!)

10 Push Ups

15 Medicine Ball Squats (Men/20lbs & Women/12lbs)

Post rounds and thoughts to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

Michelle is one of our newest CCF girls!  She will be a newlywed soon!

This Week: Strong Women

So yeah, we know our girls are physically tough, but they are smart too!  Among our female ranks, we have attorneys, teachers, military officers, nurses, police officers, small business owners, trainers of course, and what is believed the toughest of all, stay at home moms.  These women are smart and handle every aspect of their job the way they handle workouts…THEY GET IT DONE! 

Many of you will never forget the words of wisdom your mom bestowed on you.  Things like “keep making that face and it will stick that way”, “don’t sit so close to the TV, you’ll go blind”…But women also taught us to “treat others how you want to be treated”, “family first”, and “eat your veggies.”  What wisdom have you gained from a woman?  C’mon guys, you know they’ve taught you something.  Post to comments by clicking on the title of this post.

“When she speaks, her words are wise, and kindness is the rule when she gives instructions.” ~Proverbs 31:26

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