CrossFit Pasadena

It's Time to Raise Your Game!

Schedule Reminder:

NO CLASSES SCHEDULED FOR SUNDAY!

Do you seek to take the next step in your CrossFit Career? Trying to jump into that next division or break into the upper echelon of athletes? This Sunday is your time to make that leap and shine!

We have roughly a dozen spaces left for this Sunday’s CrossFit Total Meet; open for anyone looking to lift, squat, and press a couple new Personal Records!

It’s evident every single day here at CrossFit Pasadena; our community pushes one another to strive for our best efforts, and this is just during our daily WODs; now imagine the numbers you will hit with the strength of all of your teammates standing with you, sharing their energy to help you push that weight through your previous personal barriers and thresholds.

The opportunity is there, and yours for the taking; so raise your game and sign up now!

This event is open and free to all spectators!  So come on out and cheer on all your community members as they break through into new record lifts!

 

Today's Training:

Fitness

A: 1 Mile Test Run

B: AMRAP in 6 Min:

10 Burpees

10 Deadlifts

 

Performance

For time:

9 Squat Cleans (40/29)

9 Pull Ups

200m Run

12 Squat Cleans

12 Pull Ups

200m Run

15 Squat Cleans

15 Pull Ups

200m Run

18 Squat Cleans

18 Pull Ups

200m Run

 

Competition

A: Press: (x/2)5

B: Push Press: (x/2)5

C: 6 Sets:
2 Min Airdyne Sprint 

 

Post results and thoughts to comments. 

Doin' it Well..

I had a very proud coaching moment last week.

JB has been one of CrossFit Pasadena's top athletes since he joined us 2 years ago.  His engine is big. His strength is no joke. At the same time, JB is one of CrossFit Pasadena's most inflexible members.

Of course, as his coach I have always encouraged him to address these issues head on.  For a while, it was like talking to wall.  Then one day.. JB came in and said, 

"Hey coach, I started doing Yoga.  it really helps with my flexibility."

I was smiling ear to ear the entire day after hearing that.

Last week, we had Kettlebell Windmills in our training.  To properly perform this movement you must have proper mechanics, balance and flexibility. Coincidentally, this movement helps athletes attain mechanics, balance and flexibility.. however it is a punishing process. 

I looked over and saw something I definitely did not expect...

JB, who could have "muscled" through some ugly windmills with a heavier weight by relying on his strength only, was performing his Kettlebell Windmills with a 4kg kettlebell.

Not only was he going light to focus on the movement, be was also moving through each stage of the movement with the utmost patience and precision. 

I damn near cried tears of joy.

One of the hardest lessons to learn is to slow things down and do them right. 

I will be the first to admit that it is always much more appealing to take a small step forward than a big step back. People directly associate progress with sweat and breathing heavy. However, it truly isn't progress if it doesn't make you better in all aspects of your fitness. 

It's so great to see that JB "Gets it."  He has already shown amazing progress in his flexibility over the last few months.  Once this aspect of his abilities is balanced, he will truly be able to see his athletic potential.

That's pretty scary when he is already such a beast!

Congrats to JB for making the right choices in his training.  We can give you all the tools to get better but in the end, you have to make the choice to do things well.

 

"Heavy"

 

Today's Training:

Post results and thoughts to comments. 

Top 5 Great and Not So Great Moments in CrossFit

I read a post about this from my friend Annie M.  A coach at CrossFit 818 in Glendale.

I always talk about taking the time to reflect on your journey in CrossFit and how it has changed your life.  

A lot of the members at our gym are about to embark on their first and second year time marks.  It can be a bit overwhelming to think back and account for all the changes in your life over that time, let alone the accomplishments you have made since joining our community.  Having a checklist like this will give you the perspective you need to realize just how much you've accomplished over time.

So here is my list:

My 5 Great CrossFit Moments in the last year:

(in no particular order)

1. Winning the 2011 Cal State Games for Olympic Lifting.

2. Seeing my fantastic community grow more every month.

3. Coaching my first athlete to an Over-all Victory at the OC Throwdown.

4. Giving 6 people the opportunity to change people's lives by becoming coaches at CrossFit Pasadena.

5. Marrying the CrossFitter of my dreams.  

My 5 Not-So-Great CrossFit Moments in the last year:

(in no particular order)

1. Swallowing my ego and facing the harsh realities of owning a business.

2. Injuring my shoulder on the winning lift at the Cal State Games.

3. The pains of regaining my conditioning after 1 year of weightlifting.

4. Not having enough time in my life to see everyone I miss seeing all. day at my affiliate

5. Not having enough time to visit the great friends I have at other affiliates.

 

Take a moment to jot down some ideas on how your last year has been with CrossFit, then post them to comments!

 

Today's Training:

 

Post results and thoughts to comments. 

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

It's time to lift heavier than you ever have before!

This Sunday will host CrossFit Pasadena's first In-house Competition.

Is this competition for EVERYONE?

The answer is a resounding YES!  Let me tell you why.

Competing in local competitions like NLI, OC Throwdown, Frogman and the games take a major toll on your stress levels.  Each individual competitor needs to develop the mental tenacity to volunteer to go out into an environment like that and perform there best. Needless to say, it makes competing hard.  The purpose of our In-House Competition Series is to give our members a chance to push your limits in the comfort of our home with the support of our community.

For those of you at the gym that are thinking about getting into the Competitive CrossFit Circuit, this is a great opportunity to test your focus without worrying about stresses.  We are all here to do the same thing: Get Better.  This community is built on support and there will be nothing but cheering and encouragement at our In-House Competition.

What about those of you who do not want to be competitive CrossFit athletes?

This still serves as an amazing chance to come in and get that new PR on your lifts that you're overdue for. Even if you are not competitive, you still love setting new records for your fitness. 

Well this Sunday we're shutting down the gym and are giving you a chance to get that PR.

The Details:

The CrossFit Pasadena CrossFit Total Meet will start at 9am.

Weigh-ins will be at 9am.  Upon Weigh-ins you will need to present us with your opening attempt on all 3 lifts.  There will be a short de-briefing of the standards and protocol for the day as soon as the weigh-ins are complete. 

Full Range of motion on all lifts must be demonstrated in order for the attempt to be counted successful.

We will be running each portion of the meet like any weightlifting competition.  The order of athletes will be based on ascending weight of the bar. So if someone is lifting less weight than you, they will go before you. 

We will do the entire Back Squat portion followed buy Press and conclude with Deadlift.

We will need volunteers to help with Set Up and loading of the plates.  If you are interested, please let Coach Johnny, JB, Bo, Will or James know.

Spectators are Free, so come out for the fun!  Bring your friends and show them how strong you are!

We will provide some snacks for the event, but would highly suggest that you bring food for the day.

At the end of the day, winners will be crowned and prizes will be awarded.

We have a cap of 30 athletes for this competition so get your name up on the board before spaces run out!  Regardless of what athletic level you are currently at, everyone at the gym can do these movements and everyone who competes Sunday is guaranteed a great time!

Sign Up Today!

 

Today's Training:

 

Post results and thoughts to comments. 

Intensity = Good Stress!

CrossFit has a way of making the rest of your day easy.  Training with Intensity causes your body to change.  Leaner, stronger, healthier bodies are typically associated with people that have better stress management. 

Working out with intensity definitely helps develop one's ability to manage stress in life. 

Imagine the good that would come to people's lives if they were accountable enough to train with intensity for a minimum of 30 minutes daily?  

I remember a conversation I had with Brandon (OGB) while he was finishing up school and juggling his job, "These workouts keep me sane.. Paper Deadlines and End of the month quotas are not as hard as the training I did today.  Things just seem easier to deal with."

A new member of the gym last week mentioned he did P90X before joining us and I actually told him I thought P90X had the potential to be a great program.  He laughed and said, 

"Working out at home sucks!  There is no one there to tell me if I am doing it right or even to tell me to do it!  In the videos they cheer me on, but they don't know if I am actually doing Push Ups or just sitting there eating nachos while watching them do Push Ups.  There is no accountability and there certainly is not a person next to me doing things faster than me. I like the chase!  It's intense and makes me better."

A few days ago, Walter mentioned, "The best thing about the program at CrossFit Pasadena was that the only thing you need to do is show up and follow the directions and do your best!"

Rick said, "Stress is why I came in here.  Work was killing me.  I literally thought I was going to die."

The people who make up our community at CrossFit Pasadena do some pretty awesome things to make a living.  It's takes skill, dedication and a whole lot of stress management to do what you all do so well.  

I know that personally, when I am consistently training it helps regulate the stresses in my life and makes it easier for me to make better choices with meals, get better sleep and accomplish more during my day. 

The stresses we apply to our training by utilizing intensity help with conquering the day-to-day stresses outside the gym. 

Post your experiences with how CrossFit has helped you manage your daily stresses! 

 

Today's Training:

 

Post results and thoughts to comments.

The 30 Minute Cure

If you are one of our members that attend the classes I teach during the day, you have volunteered many minutes of class to addressing the needs of recovery.  

Life is all about managing the stresses put on your body.  There are good stresses and bad stresses, but all stresses cause a change.

In yesterday's post we mentioned some of the symptoms of stresses overpowering your life along with one of the leading solutions to managing stress: EXERCISE.

The video below speaks a bit more about and includes some great data on the idea that exercises helps manage stress levels.  It is worth it to watch the entire 10 minute video.

 

 

Today's Training:

Post results and thoughts to comments.  

Manage Your Stress

Life is full of deadlines, frustrations and demands.  Although, some stress isn't bad for your body, constant stress will cause cognitive, emotional, physical and behavioral responses. If you frequently find yourself feeling frazzled and overwhelmed, it's time to take action and bring your nervous system back into balance.  

Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body. It can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, contribute to infertility, and speed up the aging process. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

Here are some warning signs and symptoms of being over stressed.

 

Consistent effective exercise is one of the best stress reduction techniques available.  The combination of strength and cardiovascular conditioning makes CrossFit Pasadena a natural solution for relieving stress.  Challenge your mind and body in a CrossFit Pasadena class and manage your daily stress levels with a fun fitness community!  

 

Today's Training:

 

Post results and thoughts to comments.

Sign Up for the Meet!

The CrossFit Pasadena Total Meet is on April 29th at 9am.

It's easy to become discouraged when a competition comes up and you already know you might be out of contention for the win. 

This is not just a competition to win.  It's a chance for you to come in and establish some serious personal records (PR's) on your lifts while working on your mental tenacity.

I know that this is CrossFit and everything is scored and people love to win.  I don't know a single person who enjoys losing. 

Seriously though, have you ever felt what it is like to go for a PR with an entire community cheering you on?  It's the most amazing feeling in the world!

Something that everyone at our gym should experience.  Winning or losing, the experience will be the most productive thing about this event.  Coming in, getting fired up, lifting heavier weight than you ever have before and having your community support your personal victory.

Every Single One of the members at CrossFit Pasadena are capable of displaying an epic effort on the platform at the meet.  

It's an amazing experience that you will not want to miss.  

Make the commitment and sign up on the white board ASAP! 

Big PR's Await for EVERYONE who participates!

 

Anne Deadlifting a bar in a workout that is 50+lbs over her body weight!

Do you think she has what it takes to win the CrossFit Total Meet April 29th?

 

Today's Training:

 

Post results and thoughts to comments. 

Making it Official!

Congrats to our very own Capten Sprinkles for attaining his Level 1 Certification over the weekend!

I have been known to say this in the past:  "If your coaches cannot explain the purpose and direction of their training program to you, it's because they are a crappy coach and do not deserve you as a client."

I know it is a bit aggressive, but I get pretty passionate about coaching quality and when I see a strong lacking of it in Affiliates.

We have a trend growing at CrossFit Pasadena.  We teach our athletes how to understand what they are doing and why they are doing it.  Educated athletes eventually find passion in not only progressing their physical performance, but also their understanding of how to break down and even communicate the movements to others.

That standard at our gym has created the best coaches the City of Pasadena has to offer.

As our athletes evolve over time to levels beyond, it only makes sense to make things official.

Sprinkles has been an athlete all his life and being a high performance CrossFit Athlete is in his blood.  He has been nothing but a sponge ever since joining our community and as he progresses, he also has emerged as a fantastic competitor and leader in our growing clan.

When you see Coach Sprinkles at the gym, give him a high-5!

Also, we have a standard at our gym that now applies to Coach Sprinkles...

If you ask him why we are doing what we are doing in our training and he answers with, "I don't know."  he gets a 50 Burpee Penalty.

Congrats COACH!

 

Today's Training:

Post results and thoughts to comments.

Minimal Effective Dose... What's Your Rush?

Hey, I have a question for everyone at the gym.

What's your rush?

Don't get me wrong here.  I think that every goal can be reached faster if there is a time-based urgency added to it. 

"I will lose 10lbs in 5 weeks."   That is a realistic and very achievable within the right amount of time so long as the right things are considered and implemented.

We all know that there is a direct correlation between your proficiency in performing the movements we use in our training and the progress of your overall fitness, but there is a valuable lesson every athlete must learn along the journey of their progressions:

"Trust the Process."

Getting fit is not an overnight thing.  Heck, it isn't something a 1 month membership will solve you either.  The only thing "Magic" about the magic pill theory is how quickly money disappears from your bank account when you get suckered into buying in.

I love the excitement of a new person walking into the gym who has never tried CrossFit before saying, "I wanna compete in the CrossFit Games!"

No one ever comes into the gym saying, "I would love to imrove the quality of my movement, focus on nutrition, gain proficiency in training CrossFit and in a few years, look towards potentially competing at the international level."

I'll tell you why they never come in saying that... It's because they do not know the process. 

The training we do here at CrossFit Pasadena has purpose.  The Fitness and Performance Programs are designed to get you to where you need to be with the quality of your movement, your strength, your conditioning and any other aspect of Fitness that you value.

Sure, there may be times when we focus on specific aspects, but at those times, it is essential that you allow the adaptations to occur for a reason.  Trust that the programming always has the end result in mind. There is always a direction.

It's very easy for us to get focused on one movement at the gym and become fixated with working on it every day until it happens.  In most cases, the desired result is not always the outcome.  Eagerness and false urgency take over and adaptations are never fully achieved or become canceled out by over training.

There is a lot of technical jargon that I could list here to explain why, but does that really matter.

I think it is much more important that trust be established and that patience in progress be practiced.  

if you want to lose 10lbs the fastest way to get there is to realize its not the hollywood diet and that it will take day-after-day efforts with clean nutrition that is designed to have you leaner and weighing 10lbs less by the desired end.

If you want to get that first pull up, ring dip, of body weight back squat, realizing that the program is designed to get you all that and more in time. That patience, trust and consistency are what get you there. Not adding extra strength cycles, 5k runs after every class and doing 1000 jump ropes every day.

It is my experience that Impatient Athletes typically end up becoming injured athletes and that the most successful athletes in sports are the ones who understand that it takes time to see results.

If you want a great example, ask Brad who was featured on the blog earlier this week. 7 months to get his pull ups rockin.  Ask Mikie how long it took him to lose 140lbs.  Ask Urbana how long it took her to get as strong as she is. 

None of them will sell you a Magic Pill. They will all tell you that they had the end goal in mind and that it took trusting the process and staying consistent.

 

 

Today's Training

Post results and thoughts to comments.