Inspirational

Inspiration comes in many forms. Here is the email that was sent to us by Cynthia Martinez.
"Hi guys... U always talk about motivation and mind over matter, this
is a perfect example. These guys work with my brother and tyler is an
engineer for his dept. None of these guys are runners but the reason
for their run overcame that!!! Just wanted to share this with you
guys!!!"

Running to Tyler from jgagne33@gmail.com on Vimeo.

Biggest loser

March 13th and 14th are the CrossFit Games SoCal Sectionals at UCLA. Come support Ibby, Gilbert, and Matt. There is a new price for tickets! It is $50 for two people instead of the original $50 per person. You can get your tickets online http://games2010.crossfit.com/ or bring cash to the event.

We will be starting the biggest loser contest again. The official start date is on the Mon the 15th. You have 3 days to weigh in no exceptions. This contest will be 60 days. To participate please see Erik or Darlene.
For those of us the tore our hands today make sure you keep them clean and invest in some aloe vera plant or neosphorin. I prefer aloe vera due to it being all natural and it also makes a great shaving cream.
Great job on the dead lifts today. Here is a perfect example of great dead lift form on an object other than a barbell. Notice that the butt is lower than shoulders and most importantly the back is arched with the eyes up.

Quote of the day. "My joints are killing me...I need some of that emu piss." The "emu piss" is fish oil and it has been ordered. It should be here by friday.

S.O.S.

The thruster is the longest range of motion you can move a barbell without dropping it. This is a taxing metabolic movement which also takes a great degree of strength. After the WOD many people told me how much the thruster sucks. If you are having trouble with thrusters or think you could more efficient here are some tips...

• Always try to match your breathing to the movement. With the thruster, this means one breath one entire movement. Inhale on the way down and exhale at the top of the press.
• After full lockout is reached at the top of the press, do not lower the bar to the racked position and then drop into the front squat. From the overhead lockout, immediately drop into the squat, so that the bar reaches your shoulders at the same time as the squat reaches its lowest depth.
• Try to relax your grip during the squat. Grip and forearm fatigue can be quite severe during a thruster workout such as Fran, where the opposing movement, pullups, is also grip centric.
• With the grip and wrists relaxed, try to snap the wrists forward and up at the top of the press, and then snap them back immediately to start the descent.
• Really try to keep your weight firmly on the heels and off the toes as you perform the front squat. Pushing the knees out is also key, as is keeping the elbows up. All three of these keys work in unison. Not only is this proper squat form in general, but it will speed up your thruster by making it truly a vertical movement. Too many people bring their weight forward onto their toes when in the hole of the squat. In order to then rise, they need to rock back onto their heels and then drive up. This horizontal forward and backwards movement at the bottom of the thruster not only makes the movement much slower, but it also speeds up fatigue by wasting energy rocking back and forth.
• Rest with the bar in the racked position, never overhead.

March 13th and 14th are the CrossFit Games SoCal Sectionals at UCLA. Come support Ibby, Gilbert, and Matt. There is a new price for tickets! It is $50 for two people instead of the original $50 per person. You can get your tickets online http://games2010.crossfit.com/ or bring cash to the event.

Very interesting video below, and although it speaks of wrestling, you and I BOTH KNOW that what Dan Gable speaks of is applicable to anything in your life.



It’s quite amazing, that Dan Gable was about to finish his collegiate career undefeated and lost in his final match to Larry Owings, who was only a sophomore at the time and Gable was a Senior.

Owings was determined to beat Gable, it was imprinted in his mind and he dropped 2 weight classes to meet Gable!

Ironically, Owings never won another National Title, taking 2nd place his final 2 years in college.

It seems that beating Gable was MORE important then the national title, hence his runner up placing the next 2 years.

That loss is what MADE Gable into who and what he became from there after.

Not one point was scored on Gable during the Olympic games, he refused to give up 1 point!

Do you see the power of the mind, focusing like a demon and dedicating yourself to winning?

The same can be applied to your life and any goals you may have. Yet all too often I hear excuse after excuse as to why things can NOT be achieved.

The mind must be trained, just as you train the body.

The Russians called Dan Gable “The Machine”.

Are you a Machine?

How can you become a machine.

What will it take to achieve your goals, both physically and your life goals?

Drop a comment and share your thoughts, questions, success stories and stumbling blocks.

Let’s ALL come together and share how to kick ass!

The New Box

7:30 class keeping it gangster

We are entering a strength phase and that was apparent today. We had a bunch of people set new PR's while working up to a heavy front squat, great job. Then a short ass kicker at the end after a grinding strength workout. Strength and conditioning, thats what we do. A few tips during this strength cycle:

1. EAT!!! We can't stress enough how important your diet is. We are trying to add strength these next few weeks so we need to bump up our protein and overall calorie intake. I'm not saying that you should go out and eat a whole row of oreo's, but add a meal or two throughout the day consisting of 40% protein from lean meats (chicken, lean steak, or fish), 30% carbs from green vegi's and some fruit, and 30% fat from avocado's, olives, nuts and seeds. Eating a balanced diet is the key to making big gains and being able to recover quickly.

2. Invest in some fish oil and amino acids. Fish oil is going to help with reducing inflammation, this is key to a speedy recovery. Amino acids go hand in hand with your protein. We are breaking down your muscle everyday and you need protein and amino acids to build them back up bigger, stronger, and faster.

3. Go big!! Step out of your comfort zone. Along with pushing hard through the conditioning workouts and trying to beat your old time, we need to push hard through the strength workouts and try to lift more then we did last time within the scope of your ability. You should walk out of here feeling just as tired after a strength WOD as you do after a gnarly ass kicking conditioning WOD. I'm not saying to attempt to lift a load your not physically capable of moving, but I have noticed some stop increasing weight when they could have safely added 5 or 1o more lbs. That might not seem like a lot of weight right now but trying to increase by 5 lbs every time you squat or press will turn into 20 or 30 lbs over a few months and that is huge.

4. Don't over train. We know that working out can be somewhat addicting. But too much exercise can be dangerous. Over training can reverse all that hard work you're putting in and will eventually cause injury which will leave you out of commission and back at square one. Make sure you're getting enough sleep, stretching, rolling out on the foam roller, and following your diet. Also drinking enough water so that you're hydrated will help tremendously.

5. Set some goals. We are in the beginning of the cycle and in the beginning of the month. Set some strength goals for yourself and let us know what they are. We will help you get there.

Greetings from the new box. Slowly but surely we are getting things rolling at our new location. Classes are back in full swing and we have more room then we know what to do with. We are working on transforming the loading dock into a platform, multiple pull up systems, a free standing ring station, and an isolated shower plus two separate bathrooms.

We would like to wish Amy M a happy B-day. There are new members joining every day so lets make sure to introduce yourself and give them a big CF Brea welcome.

I had to pick up a new la-z-boy chair a few nights ago and the only person at the store to help me load it was a gray haired 70 something year old lady. I told her I could get it obviously I was sure she would do more harm than good and just get in my way. She insisted on helping so I said "alright have it your way", totally expecting her to hurt herself. To my surprise she stepped up to the chair with her feet under her hips, bent over and took her grip just outside her knees, dropped her hips and set her back, then drove through her heels raising her hips and shoulders at the same time, executing a flawless dead lift. I was amazed and couldn't believe my eyes. She's not a member at CF Brea but she was a perfect example of functional training being executed in real life and that's what we are training for everyday.