Pain Free

Amy working her clean and jerk

Myknee pain began during my senior season with the UCSC Women’s Volleyball team. It was painful to squat or put any weight on my right leg. I had x-rays and an MRI and was sent to physical therapy for Patellofemoral pain. My kneecap was being pulled laterally out of its normal track because of muscle imbalance and flat feet. This caused the cartilage to be worn away and my tendon to be stressed. I went to physical therapy for a month, resulting in only a small decrease in pain.

            Lucky for me, one of my best friends had just become a CrossFit trainer and suggested that I come in. I was initially scared that the intensity would hurt my knee even more. On the first day, Gilly explained my situation to Danielle and I remember her looking straight at me and saying, “I know exactly what pain you’re talking about, I’ve had two knee surgeries. Lets see if we can get you to squat without pain, then you can call your physical therapist and tell him you won’t be coming back. I think we can have you playing volleyball again by April.” Who can argue with that? I stopped physical therapy and started CrossFit five days a week in February.

            It took an entire month of squatting to an ab-mat on a box, then just a box, then a smaller box for me to get a proper squat (proper, still not perfect!). By March I was squatting with weight and in April I was doing box jumps. Now I back squat around a hundred and thirty pounds and am playing beach volleyball almost everyday. I’m so thankful to Gilly, Danielle and Hollis for giving me the right tools to continue to be an active athlete, when I had been convinced that I had to give up playing the sport I love. CrossFit served to be an excellent and fun rehab program for my knee and I am so happy with my results.

-Amy Knight

Workout:

"Nasty Girls"

3 rounds for time of:
50 Squats
7 Muscle-ups
135 pound Hang power cleans, 10 reps

Oh So Close

Close but no PR.

At the CrossFit Level I certifications we say that one of the most common flaws in a jerk is not fully opening the hip. Missing full hip extension will diminish our ability to lift heavy.  Equally problematic is not fully extending the arms.  Either error in the movement may result in missing a new PR.  Next time meet that bar with straight arms.

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Workout:

Not telling

Hip and Leg Extension

Baily with great bottom and top position with the kettle bell.

The Kettle bell swing is an interesting movement. It is one of those medium complexity moves we group with the push press, wall ball, box jumping and sumo deadlift high pull. These movement necessitate good body awareness and are defined by the extension of the hip and leg against a neutral spine transferred to and external object. The  complexity is driven from the coordination the movements requeire and the element of velocity. These types of movement are great at developing the speed and power needed to do more complex movements and are great at building work capacity.

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Workout:

Clean and Jerk

1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Simple Moves

Hannah, Beth, Dawn and Amy.

Saturday's Squat/Pull-up workout and Sunday's kettle bell swing/push-up workout were both deceptively challenging.  Two relatively simple movements paired together.  Nothing too heavy and nothing too long, however the effects are still being felt. We like to keep the workouts simple. Simple and effective. I heard once that if you can't describe the workout in less than 30 seconds it might be too complicated. 

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Workout:

Rest Day

Thank You Kai!

Kai with a kettlebell overhead.

Just over a month ago, several CFSC athletes showed up at the gym early on a Saturday morning to participate in the Human Race.  We were running to support Every Child Outdoors and to raise money to help students in lower income communities afford participation at the residential Santa Cruz County Outdoor Science School.  Thank you to all that came out to participate!  Every dollar that was raised goes directly to providing scholarships for students in the 2010 - 2011 school year.  The importance of spending a week exploring, learning and discovering outside cannot be overstated, now more than ever.  According to R.A. Wetzel, "In January, 2010, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that childrenages 8- 18 spend an average of more than 7.5 hours per day using some sort of electronic screen" read more...

Kai gets it.  And for the second year in a row, he has worked to raise money for Every Child Outdoors and outdoor school scholarships.  This year he has raised enough to become the third highest fundraiser for the entire event with 100's of participants.  Click here to check it out! (And you can still donate if you want to).  Thanks to Kai, 90 5th grade students in Santa Cruz County will receive a scholarship towards the outdoor school tuition.  That covers three classrooms and an entire 5th grade class.  We are so, very proud of his efforts.  

Thank you Kai!!

With deepest appreciation,

Heather Mac (and lots of 5th graders)

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Workout:

Handstand practice 45 minutes

Then, 21 rep back squat

Get A Grip

Amy working her reverse grip.

Yesterdays Wod we required everyone to experiment with different types of pull-ups.  We wanted different grips as well.  We are always looking for more and better tools for our athletes.  There is no standard grip when it come to the pull-up.  We suggest learning with a two hand overhand grip with your thumb around the bar.  Once proficient with one style of grip, we like to see our athletes broaden their skill base and work different grips.

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Workout:

50-40-30-20-10
Kettlebell Swing

Push-up

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Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there.

For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

Lucas focused on the erg.

One of the reasons Crossfit has been so successful is that is has had the fortune of attracting very kind and generous people. It has allowed for CrossFit to grow as a grass roots program. CrossFit has also been successful at attracting those who are willing to give their time and energy with little or no monetary compensation.  Lucas has proven to be one of these people.  He is the lead man on our cleaning crew and has been an instrumental part of nearly every community event we have put on. He is part of our success and he is a great athlete too.

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Workout:

10 rounds of:
30 Squats
15 Pull-ups

Each round of pull-ups should be a different variant.  ie kipping, butterfly, frogger, snatch grip...etc

Training

Katy flipping the tire.

"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."
-Muhammad Ali

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BREAST CANCER EXERCISE, PREVENTION, AND TREATMENT pdf(67.5K)-June 2010- by Mary Conover

Read this article and Mary's collected works at Conover's Corner

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Workout:

Rest Day

So Special

Natalie during the first pull.

With CrossFit our specialty is not specializing.  That does not mean, however that we don't love the specialist.  When an athlete spends the time and energy it takes to become a true specialist, it is something quite amazing to watch.  Lucky for us we scheduled to have two amazing specialist come to the box in July just after the Games.

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CrossFit's very own mobility guru Kelly Starrett will be here on Saturday July 24th with his CrossFit Mobility and Movement Certification. Participants will understand how to:  Improve force production, increase work outputs, avoid common and preventable movement dysfunction and injury, and understand how to address simple performance related myo-fascial and joint mobility issues. 

Sign up HERE

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Then on July 25th we are hosting a one day Tony Blauer seminar. Blauer Tactical Systems (BTS) is one of the world'sleading consulting companies specializing in the research and development of close quarter tactics & scenario-based training for law enforcement, military and professional self-defense instructors. BTS's approach to fear management, scenario analysis, pre-contact cue break down is now used by the world's most skilled coaches, trainers and warriors. 

Sign up HERE

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Workout:

In Teams of 4 complete as many reps as possible in 20 minutes of

Box Jump
Tire Flip
Dumbbell walking Lunge
Dumbbell Thruster

The amount of time you spend at each station is the amount of time it takes your team member to flip the tire 75 feet.

Athletes are allowed to begin moving once everyone has been tagged and the box jumper reaches the tire station.

Getting Organized

  Amy doing hip extensions

In an ideal world all of my athletes would be getting 8-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep. They would workout 5-6 days a week with some focus time on weaknesses. They would work on maintenance and mobility to avoid injury and perform better. They would eat a weighed and measured zone/paleo diet to maintain lean muscle and keep hormones in balance. They would cultivate and nurture healthy relationships and they would play.

How close are you?

Workout:

Snatch

1-1-1-1-1-1-1