Taco night @ Cafe EL Cholo right after class $1 taco's so I hope you all saved your cheat meals. Cafe El Cholo is off Whitter BVLD. You can meet here and we can drive over together. We also need to welcome Shalina, John, and Cole to the family.

We are so happy with everyone's progress with the Olympic Snatch. Today was a great day, congrats to everyone who executed this lift. Its days like this that really get us pumped up. Hell of a job everyone.

We have new family members, please welcome Mundo, Aurora, Sean, Amy, and Scott. The quest has begun for these individuals please make sure and encourage them along the path blood, sweat, and tears. Scott absolutely killed the high pull today, it takes most athletes months to learn what he did tonight, great job Scott, you got my ass fired up tonight! Make sure to check out the nutrition page for a couple of new ideas.

Speaking of family, the workout is not over until every mother, father, son, daughter, brother, and sister is finished. It's not a good feeling to be the only one left in the WOD, it's an even worse feeling when everyone else around you is talking amongst each other and/or cleaning up weights while you're busting your ass. However, it's a great feeling to have your peers around you cheering you on to the finish. If it means running an extra lap with that person to help them finish then so be it. There will be plenty of time to talk and clean up the box when the WOD is over. Lets make sure we get eachother's back while we're in here doing work.

We are 1RM the snatch this week so study the technique when we review in class. More and more of you are looking into the Paleo diet and you will all soon exceed your expectations. With the combo of hard work and proper diet your lives will change forever.
For most of you the decision to work hard has been made, for some the quest has just begun. There is no shortcut for any place worth going. Remember the satisfaction that you all get when you start seeing the waist lines go down or the lifts go up. This is your sport, it is you vs life. How much better can you get. If the mental training matches the physical you will succeed. Keep up the hard work.

Congrats to Bruno Paulista who won his first MMA fight via rear naked choke. We will be stepping into the world of the kipping pull-up the next few weeks. The kipping pull-up is a full body movement and is preferred because it gets the heart rate up and you can do more faster.

Sean Rooney

CrossFit Brea athlete recently made headlines.

WOODBRIDGE, Va. - The Potomac Nationals announced today that catcher Sean Rooney has been promoted to the Double-A Harrisburg Senators, the first Potomac position player to earn a call-up this season. To accommodate the move, infielder Michael Martinez has been sent down to Potomac and will rejoin the team Thursday before the finale of the four-game series with the Lynchburg Hillcats.

Rooney has been arguably the team's best hitter in 2009 with his .300 average, six home runs, and 40 RBI. He has also compiled an on-base percentage of .366 and an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of .832 which also leads the team. No slouch defensively either, Rooney led all Carolina League catchers in throwing out would-be basestealers, nabbing potential thieves at a 47% success rate.

The season started out slowly for Rooney as the Saddleback Community College product was hitting just .167 on May 6, but a huge series against Winston-Salem from 5/8-5/10, which saw the catcher go 6-for-10 with two home runs and six RBI, jump-started his stellar season.

Rooney took home Nationals' Player of the Month honors for the month of June when he hit .329 in 22 games. He has hit .317 since the All-Star break and has crushed right-handed pitching to the tune of a .318 batting average with three home runs and 27 RBI.

In Harrisburg, Rooney will rejoin his good friend Brad Meyers, who was recently promoted to Harrisburg as well. The two are former Little League teammates from Yorba Linda, Ca., and have spent the last two seasons together in Hagerstown, Potomac, and now Harrisburg. He will also join his former Potomac Nationals teammates Erik Arnesen, Clint Everts, Andrew Kown, and Carlos Martinez who have fortified the Senators' pitching staff since their promotions from Potomac.

Age, sex and occupation is not a factor. This is Dr. Chung, he started as a skeptic. He did not believe that he could train in the CrossFit program let alone achieve results. Here he is today doing 30 toes to bar. What is great about Doc is that he is now a believer and he comes in and busts his ass every time he is here. We are proud of you Doc, keep up the good work.
Just a reminder tomorrow is the free fundamentals @ 10:30am bring friends and family. Also we are going to Cafe El Cholo for dollar taco night next Friday the 31st right after our 5:30 class.

Yes that temp is correct, we have train through everything here, including extreme heat. The trainers here are proud of each and everyone of you.

July 22, 2009

Are you comfortable in the bottom of the OHS? If you answered "yes" to this question then you're well on your way to being able to perform the snatch test coming up next week. If you answered "no" don't worry, this is a process, it doesn't happen over night, not to mention the OHS is the toughest lift in book. Consistency is the key to everything we do here. Make sure you are getting in and putting in the time to learn the technique. At the same time, lets make sure we are making good decisions during our daily grind. What you put in your body will effect the way you think, move, feel, and recover during and after a workout and throughout the day.

Free class this Sunday @ 10:30am. This is an introduction to CrossFit, we will be learning some of the movements followed by a short workout. Bring family and friends, everyone is welcome!

Snatch max test next week!

This is blog that was posted by our good friends over at CrossFit Costa Mesa. Steve who we have had the opportunity to meet is the author. He has a way of hitting the nail on the head every time. I encourage everyone to check out there site and read some of their blogs.

It’s important that we are honest with ourselves about the cost of attaining our goals. This is going to sting for some, and it’s something I hear often.

“What you do is too hard.” Too hard compared to what? Too hard for who? Yes, what we do is hard work and this statement is meaningless on it’s own, but usually this person leads with, “I want to be fit and look better for the beach.” Now it becomes a problem. So what you are saying then is, “I want to be fit and look good on the beach, but it’s too hard.” I don’t know how to respond to this. CrossFit has an 80% failure rate. 80% of the people that come into a CrossFit gym do 1-2 workouts and NEVER come back. What do they do? They go back to doing the status quo. Why? Because it’s hard work to look good on the beach. It’s hard work to change.

When someone hears that I am a trainer they usually don’t think much of it, then over time they will on occasion tell me about how great their workout was at equinox or some other gym with their trainer. Or better yet, they ask me how to do some exercise their trainer was having them do at …(fill in any big gym here). I want to slap them in the face. I want to shake them and say, your stability ball bent rows are not going to make you fit, they are not going to make you look better, and they are not going to make you a better athlete. You are doing the same thing you did last year, and the year before, and the year before that…you sign up at some gym, show up for about 1 month then all the “reasons” you can’t make it start coming on strong. Work late, wife, girlfriend, party to go to, BBQ, tired, new movie just came out, new computer game, too sore…etc etc. What I really want to say is “you believe that you can have the same body as the magazine fitness model and show up to a day spa, chat with a couple ladies at the water fountain, walk around looking for some sacred piece of gym equipment that Muscle and Fitness claims is the key to some pro’s workout, jump on the elliptical machine for 45 min do some bench presses for 30 min and occasionally eat indiscriminately, “one bite wont hurt” every day, but it just doesn’t work like that.” ”You got SOLD!” You believe the oldest lie in the world. You believe that you can have something without putting in the work for it.

And here is the lead in to the second thing that gets me. I ask them what their goal is, and at the end of the day everyone has the same goal. Lose more fat. Look better. In our society and especially in Orange County, no one seems to give a damn about health and being fit until it’s way past too late. No one seems to care about being able to pick something up off the ground and put something overhead, because well, “I can just have you do it” as someone once told me. Health and fitness is all fun and games until you are in a rest home because you can’t perform the minimum daily tasks for yourself. You can’t shower, you can’t get up out of a chair…all of a sudden fitness and health is important, but it’s too late.

So you want to look better huh? How is your current strategy and behaviors moving you towards that? I bet they aren’t. I bet you are doing the same exercises with the same weight at the same intensity you did last year and the year before, and the year before that. I hear countless times a day “I just want to tone up a bit and look better for (fill in the blank).” First of all, “tone” doesn’t exist. You are either fat or lean, weak or strong, fast or slow. I would rather be lean, strong, and fast, but I think what this person is trying to say is they want to be lean and have less body fat on them. What I don’t understand is how to help this person make the connections that in order to do that they are going to have to give up some things and it’s going to hurt. There really is no way around it. Even the coveted fitness model body takes work sweat and pain. You are going to have to give up the fast food, the alcohol, they are going to have to work HARD for 6 months (it’s not gonna happen in 1 week) and they are going to be in pain the entire time they do it. So there it is I’m putting it out there.

Here is an add that came up when I was writing this: “Get Absolutely Ripped For Just 3 Low Payments of $39.95+S&H!” Really, that’s it, I pay $120 and I’m “absolutely” ripped? Sign me up! (notice that it’s ABS…ripped. Everyone wants the 6-pack, no ones wants to WORK for it.)

Here is the truth: Get fit, look great after years of working your ass off and eating only lean meat, veggies, and nuts…and that’s free, don’t worry about shipping and handling.

When I was in college I came to realize that I was searching for a “magic key.” It was a long road and thankfully I had some very insightful professors that pointed it out to me. I was searching for something that I could do, say, or think, that would make all of my goals easy and quick to reach. I didn’t want to have to give anything up. Through an emotional “forge” I learned that there is no magic key. I learned that for whatever reason, life demands consistent and persistent hard work to reach a goal. I still find myself being pulled back to find a magic key and I know that it doesn’t exist, that there is only hard work.

Highlight video

CrossFit Brea Highlights July 09 from Matt Banwart on Vimeo.

We have received some feedback regarding the videos we post. The feedback that concerns us is people saying that the videos are "to intimidating." The staff here at CrossFit Brea will not apologize for who we are. This is what we do!!! Everyone in these videos trains here, and they are everyday people. We have housewives, doctors, lawyers, college students, teachers, law enforcement, basically what we are saying is that CrossFit Brea is fueled by all walks of life.

We have men and women training together. What a concept!!! Why would we have it any other way. Maybe we should isolate the men and women from each other and give them thier own weights, or better yet give each sex their own drinking fountain. This is not how the real world works, we hate to break it to you but men and women interact with each other on a daily basis.

If you are happy with doing your "globo gym" rountines than I am happy for you. If you get satisfaction out of a back and bi day, leg and ab day, and a chest and tri day, then stick with it. Crossfit Brea trains the full body everyday. Their is one gurantee that we will give you and that is when you finish our daily WOD (Workout of the Day) you will have a feeling of accomplishment.

If the thought of intimidation enters your mind by watching these videos due to the people in them, the music, or the actions...then ask yourself, are you ready for change? Quit giving excuses on why you should not do this and start coming with reasons on why you should. If CrossFit Brea was so hard that people were dropping dead we would no longer be in business.

CrossFit Brea from Matt Banwart on Vimeo.

July 20, 2009

Good job on the back squats everyone.. Your depth is looking great!!

Nice job on the Pull-Up test today Ibby, Brandon, Joe and the ladies are Steph, Wendy, and MaryAnn. Lets see if those numbers hold up tomorrow for those that didn't make it in today.
Congratulations to Ed, Nanci, and Matt Delao who purchased the Paleo book over the weekend.

Lets welcome Edmundo and Aurora to the CrossFit Brea Family!!

July 19, 2009

Great turnout for the free fundamentals, we will be doing this every Sunday @ 10:30 am. Keep checking the site for nutrition tips. Great job to Jeff who on Thursday hit a new PR on his front squat for two reps.

July 17, 2009

Be ready for tomorrow. We will be working the Dirty 30. So remember to fuel up on a good meal before you come in and be well hydrated...
Debbie and Shobmana getting comfortable with the Front Squat. Great job ladies. Keep it up everyone on working on your depth.

Matt killing the OHS (Over Head Squat)

July 13, 2009

One of these people is doing his own thing. Can you guess which one?

July 12, 2009

Next Sunday the 19th we will be hosting a free Demo for anyone that is curious about Crossfit. Please tell all your friends and family to come check it out. The day will consist of a Technique and a short WOD.

July 11, 2009

Jose annihilating the dead lift. Good work today everyone.

If anyone has any suggestions on anything-a WoD, how we can improve the box, class times etc. please let us know. Shoot us an email if you like or go up to the tool bar and click contact us then enter a comment-anonymously if you want. We're always looking for ways to improve ourselves and your input is important to us.

July 10, 2009

If it was easy we would not do it!!! Our snatch progression is coming along nicely, keep up the good work. Please make sure to keep up on the water intake.It is getting hotter which means you sweat more, this can lead to cramps which suck, so please pay attention to your body. Get the proper nutrition and fluids in you.