Workout of the Day –

Cannon, looking fast!

1 big lap (same as the warm-up lap)
10 burpees
20 kettlebell swings
30 box jumps
20 kettlebell swings
10 burpees
1 big lap

This is done just once straight through. This is an “easier” workout, so it’s about the mental game of intensity. You really don’t have to stop moving through this one. It should be one thing, right into the next one. Let’s see who’s gonna get less than 10 minutes!

Thanks to all of you who colluded with Alice for the surprise party yesterday. Totally got me. The good news for all of you, is that new guy, Cory, also has his birthday today. So you get to choose who’s birthday you want to “celebrate.”

Workout of the Day –

that's my coach, no not the cool guy with tattoos...the other one..with the...tiara

A – 8 rounds for technique/load
- 3 deadlifts – 5 seconds up/ 5 seconds down
- rest the remainder of 2 minutes

Choose one of the following

B1 – for time
“Cory”
- 30 thrusters (115/75)

B2 – for time -
“Max – 37 reps”
- 3 tire flips – the biggest tire
- 7 muscle-ups
- 3 tire drags (bump2bump+45lbs)
- 7 handstand push-ups (head to ground on 2-45lb plates)
- 3 box jumps @ 48 inches
- 7 thrusters (135/95)
- 7 dead hang weighted pull-ups (53/26)

This is my theme song for the day …

look at that sweet running form

A – 21-15-9 reps for time of
- hang squat clean (medium weight)
- clapping push-ups

So you’ll start each rep from the hang position, but do the full squat each time. If you drop it, your next rep may start from the ground instead of the hang.
For the clapping push-ups, you may scale them up by doing them on plates.

B – 6 rounds for technique
- bump to bump sprint – 85-90%
- walk back

These sprints should be about a minute apart. It’s gonna take around 10-12 seconds to sprint the bump to bump (up hill to help with form), then the rest of the minute to walk back.
Those of you in the afternoon are super lucky, since you’ll be getting not only Garrick to coach you through the cleans, but also Stephanie to coach your running!

Should we do the beach again this Saturday?

Workout of the Day – “Dirty 30″

Kiss makes a milestone, or at least a lap ;)

For time:

30 box jumps (24″/20″)
30 pull-ups
30 KB Swings (53#/35#)
30 jumping Lunges
30 knees to Elbows
30 push-up (45#/33#)
30 good mornings (45#/33#)
30 wallball (20#/14#)
30 burpees
30 double-Unders

If you see our whorl traveler Ashley “Kiss” today, wish her a happy one. (It was actually yesterday;) Hope you feel the love/hate today!

Workout of the Day –

get it Katie!

A – 5 x 5 back squat.
- 5 second descent
- 5 second ascent
change of direction (each way) is immediate,
you are, essentially, under load for 50 seconds.
weight will be considerably lighter,
–in the 135-185 range for guys, and
–in the 95-135 range for ladies.
reps 4 & 5 of each of these sets will be BRUTAL

B – for time
- 50 ring dips
- 100 v-ups
break ‘em up any way you want.

A new section of the website will be up tomorrow, not a big deal, just another menu item that will be titled “Ax Max.” Many of you have question about a range of subjects, from nutrition, to why we do certain stretches in the warm ups, and it’s hard to get to all of them during class. So get ready to fire away!

Workout of the Day –

our most senior & junior members

A – 5 rounds for time/technique of
- 50 double unders
- 5 hang snatch (medium weight, just enough to challenge technique)

B – 4 rounds for time of
- 30 second pull-up hold
- 60 second sit again wall

The last of the Fasting posts over at Paleo Plan.

Lookin’ forward to the beach workout tomorrow peeps!

Workout of the Day –

CJ getting ready for battle

A – OMEM for 15 rounds,
- 3 deadlift – “flat” no increasing of weight

B – bottom to bottom Tabata squats (link)*
- lowest set is score.
- stay engaged at the bottom, no “sitting”

* it’s true, that in a purest sense, these aren’t really Tabata, since there is no rest (you should be active at the bottom), but it’ll still be a brutal 4 minutes :)

Obviously, the deadlift part is less than the 5 reps we’ve been doing, which means that we need to add weight. Probably 20 lbs or more. Please refer to your old weight here. How much will be determined by this formula: last week’s weight x 1.11.* If your form is not SPOT ON, then you do less weight. This week and next week, we’ll do three reps, and 2 weeks from now, on May 24th, we will be establishing a 1 rep max for everyone.

*We get this number by addressing volume. For example, last week, I did 205 for 50 reps total, giving me a total poundage of 10,250. If I divide that 10,250 by 45 reps (3 reps x 15 minutes) then I get, basically, 228. So I’d go with 230 for today, assuming my form is fuckin sweet. You also get the same result by multiplying by 1.11 since 50/45=1.11. If we only did 10 rounds today, that would put total weight lifted at about 2/3rds what we need (only about 6900 pounds in my example), meaning that we have to up the sets when we go down in reps.

All in all, the “A” workout still should be a 7 or 8 on the 1-10 scale. It should not feel like a HUGE amount of weight.

Ezra, in the middle of the pack!

Workout of the Day – 7 rounds for time of

1 small lap
10 knee to elbow pull-ups*
10 push-ups*

There is a 30 minute time limit on this workout.

*You may substitute 5 muscle-ups for the 10 k2epu and the 10 pu

More form Deadpan…

Follow up question! “metabolic pathway being used to make you awesome.” Please explain metabolic pathway and is that what you were talking about when you were explaining to Plush why they chose 7 minutes for that burpee WOD? And why some people naturally have great edurance, like Asian? And lactic acid buildup? And…ok, I’ll stop. But I wrote my yelp review already so I get to ask questions, right??

Alright…reaaalllyy quickly…

You’re body’s main “gas” that it uses for cellular energy is a molecule called ATP. There is more than one way for you body to produce said ATP. A certain amount is stored. This is accessible rapidly and is great for shorts bursts of speed. It does, however fade very quickly. Remember yesterday, in round 5, when you did 3 bench press, then went to get another, and it just didn’t move? Yeah, your initial stores of ATP were gone.After that you use stores glycogen to make more ATP, this takes a little longer, so you can’t go as fast, and as a side effect, makes lactic acid. If you’re doing to much, too fast, your body can’t push the lactic acid out fast enough and it builds up, causing that burn during Tabata. The last stage is oxidative, meaning that your actual breathing plays more of a role in recycling the ATP (oxygen is also involved in the previous two pathways, but it becomes more primary after the first two have “maxed out”)

This all happens relatively quickly. The first being a burst of power speed that falls at about 10 seconds, the second making it out to 40-50 seconds, then the last taking over from there.

The exact science behind the 7 minutes of burps question I’ll have to do more research on. Suffice to say that from my experience, and that of a few strongman competitors that I know personally, once you get out past the 8 minute window, ting start to become more “endurance” based, and less about strength and power generation. Take notice today when you feel that little wall come up, it’ll be somewhere in that 8-10 minute range. This is also why non of the CrossFit Football workouts are longer than 12 minutes. They are favoring strength. Once again, I don’t know the exact science behind this (will research today), but if you go over that “threshold” you get weaker. You also get better conditioned, so it’s a trade off. If you’re doing Strongman or football, the trade off isn’t worth it, for the rest of us trying to be more balanced, we’re a little more okay with it.

Once again, just off the top of my head.

Workout of the Day – “Tater”

look who's back!

6 rounds for reps/calories of
- 30 second bench press
- 60 second row
- 10 second rest/transition back to bench

Use a weight were you can get 15-20 reps for the first round, then things will go down hill from there ;)
We last did this workout on Feb 20th, you can check your old weight & score here.

Deadpan threw a couple questions my way yesterday. Usually, it take at LEAST a month for me to get to answering her. But in my effort to be a better coach to all of you, I’ve decided to answer them “for time.” Here goes.

Hi Max,

I was reading Robb Wolf’s blog on protein shakes(link) and eating carbs post-workout(link) and I actually only have 1 question per topic (only 1??):

- Protein shakes, specifically post-workout – what actually happens within my body when I ingest this within 45 mins-1 hr after my workout? His article emphasizes that real food will always be better and I won’t argue there, but he also kinda made it seem like protein shakes are straight-out useless. I swear I feel less sore when I’m taking the post-work out shake but it could also just be all in my head. I know you mentioned during the Nutrition seminar that because there isn’t much fiber, if any, in the protein shake, the excess protein will just get flushed out of my system rather than my body holding on to it and extracting nutrients over a period of time.

Without having read either article (yet), and with total reverence to Robb Wolf (he’s WAY smart), let me give this a shot. 

The value of a post-workout shake varies according to the workout. I, like you, find that a reasonable post-workout shake makes me feel pretty damn good. The general idea with protein shakes is two-fold.

1. the desire to get protein back into the blood stream (& therefore muscle) to repair the muscle breakdown that’s happened during a workout. (Reminder, we breakdown muscle during a workout, especially heavy ones, it’s the time in between workouts, recovery, when we’re becoming more awesome)
2. to replenish blood sugar, and by extension, glycogen stores within the muscle.

On the first one, the general research says that whey protein gets taken up into the blood stream very quickly & the follow-up theory is that it is then readily available for muscle repair. So, according to this theory,  protein shake after workout = good.The catch here is also what you mentioned, as in “How long does the protein stay there/How long is the protein available for repair/How long do those repairs take?” All great questions, and there lies the concern with “shakes.” Because of the lack of fiber, and the fact that they really are “food” in the “pick it or kick it” sense, most protein/post-workout shakes don’t hang out for long in your system. I know that, depending on the workout, it can feel like days before I’m up to par again, and by then that shake is long, long gone.

On the second, this is the reason that companies make a specific “post-workout” shake that is higher in carbs than a “protein” shake. The idea here is that you want to replenish blood sugar, and muscle glycogen stores. You’re also highjacking the insulin response to transport more protein into the muscle for repair & synthesis (remember insulin is a storage hormone that tells the cells to open up & let stuff in? -that’s what we’re attempting to apply here). The trick here is that your blood sugar after a workout should be relatively stable, maybe a little on the low side, but well within the normal range. Muscle glycogen may, indeed, be very low, depending on the workout, and your body will be working to replenish it. It’s also really hard to tell from workout to workout how much protein & carbs you need post workout. There’s no practical way to measure it, and even if there was, can you imagine mixing up a different shake after every workout, weighing & measuring each ingredient? Ugh. So, instead, they up the carbs of the post workout shake, with the idea that you’re working hard enough to need it. Also, post workout, you are more insulin sensitive, meaning that you’re going to have a “better” response to the carbs in your system, this is just healthier in general, as well as being something we could potentially take advantage of with our post workout nutrition, whether from a blender or stove-top.

– Eating carbs post-workout – I know you mentioned during the nutrition seminar that if I wanted to eat carbs, post-work out would be the best time, but are there actual benefits to doing so? And what does he mean by “I think there are activities/work outputs that just run better with SOME glycogen” under the “Can’t everything be Fat Fueled?” section? Is he talking about those WODs that straight kick my ass and I’m left shaking on the ground afterwards for a few minutes?

See! Shorter than usual.

As far as having carbs post workout, see “On the second…” above.

As far as activities being more glycogen or fat-fueled. I think what he’s getting at there is that due to different systems being called upon during different types of workouts, some are fueled better by fat, and others by glycogen (sugar). I don’t know of studies off the top of my head, but I do know a LOT of guys anecdotally, myself included, who really feel stronger and do better on heavy workouts or a more CrossFit Football type workout when a little hungry or on an empty stomach. These tend to be more fat-fueled workouts, in that it’s a about a big boost of speed/power, with time to recover. In these cases, your recovery has more to do with oxygen (breathing) than local glycogen stores. Once you get out past 12 minutes or so, then you start tapping the glycogen, and fatiguing those metabolic systems as well. This is usually where you hit that first little wall in Cindy, or the longer workouts we do. At 10-12 minutes, you’re feeling good, and cranking along, thinking “I’m gonna KILL this.” Then the metabolic pathway changes (into more of a long-slow distance kind of thing), and you start to slow down, doing only 5 rounds in the last 8 minutes when, if you could’ve kept up the pace, you would’ve done 8 or 10.

So yeah, 5×5 heavy back squats, and Fight Gone Bad can both be miserable workouts, though in completely different ways. Some of this is because of the metabolic pathway being used to make you awesome.

Once again, this is ALL of the top of my head, and I still haven’t read the articles, so given more time to research specific points, we could have a lot of fun getting into this, and I’ll see what I can do. I make no claims that I know all the answers and reserve the right to change my views as I continue to learn. Until then, keep firing away!

Bambi Thruster!

A – every other minute for 5 rounds
- 5 back squat

B – for time –
- 15 hang power cleans
- 1 small lap

At CrossFit 1440, We are very fortunate in our gym to be the beneficiaries of some great hard working people. Especially the one who captures all of us working hard in pictures. Yeah, that super-hot lady with the camera, Alice. Alice works hard for all of those pics, and for all of that effort, I think we have some of the sweetest pics in the CrossFit world, even though we’re a relatively small gym. We want you to share those pics everywhere you can! We want you to be celebrated on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Google+, wherever! Our only request is that if the pic has a watermark on it (if it says “CrossFit 1440″) please leave it on! It helps to grow awareness about our community and the awesomeness that we are creating! Alice is wonderful enough to share her talents with all of us, let’s be sure that we’re honoring the source (or at the least her husbands business).

If you ever want actual prints of pics that you see, you can always shoot of an email to Alice or myself, and we’ll let you know how you can make that happen. (All this digital sharing is free, but prints aint;)

Looking forward to a nice, fierce week? Hope so!