Not too long ago, Holley posted about having a Training Buddy. Someone that you could train with, learn from, someone to help motivate you to be better or help give you a different perspective on a particular movement. In the case of the Top 2 Fittest Women on Earth, Sam Briggs approached Lindsey Valenzuela to be her training partner before Games 2013.
“She comes from a strength background, I’m more endurance, so I thought what better person to train with than someone who’s my complete opposite.” -Sam Briggs
Awesome concept, right? As you start prepping for the Intrepid Games, this might be something you would like to do. Partner up with someone whose strengths are your weaknesses. Find out what makes them so great at pull ups, snatches, running, etc… Are they focusing on something in particular? Do they have a specific breathing technique? Are they doing auxiliary lifts, working on skills, or mobility work before or after class? Their willingness to get in that extra work to achieve their goals may be a great motivator for you to put in that extra work as well. How ever you and your partner balance each other, as Holley said before, make sure the partnership is one that benefits the both of you.
As coaches, we can teach you how to properly execute a lift and give you tips on how to improve your range of motion but it’s your peers that will give you that extra confidence boost. It’s the cheers from your training partner that will keep you pushing through that next rep. It’s your training partner that’s out on the floor gutting along beside you. Watch the interview of Lindsey Valenzuela and Sam Briggs partnership below.
During warm-ups on a day when we’re doing cleans or snatches, we usually include muscle cleans/snatches followed by the hang power version of the lift. When we do the muscle version (just the arms involved) we usually see great bar path, nice and close to the body, as well as good high pulls with the elbows high and outside. Then when we switch to the hang power version of the lift (now the legs are involved), the bar path starts to change and often times the high pull goes away. I don’t say this to pick on anyone in particular, the olympic lifts are extremely complex and take a lot of work to master. I am often guilty of excluding the high pull, especially when the weight is heavy and I just want to get under the bar.
For those of you that participated in the CrossFit Games Open, you may remember the “tips” videos posted for every workout the trio of KStarr (mobility), Carl Paoli (body weight movements/gymnastics) and Diane Fu. Diane Fu is a well known olympic lifter and barbell coach, and I follow her page of Facebook called FuBarbell. Her post today included a picture that really caught my eye, and naturally it had to do with the snatch high pull. I happen to be a visual learner, and this picture and instruction really stood out to me.
Photo credit: FuBarbell
The weight on the bar for this particular lifter must be fairly light for her considering how high up the bar is at full extension, but you can see that she has her elbows well above the bar. This is the type of high pull we’re talking about. It keeps the bar in close to the body and makes the transition to pull under the bar easier. A common mistake people make is that they pull their elbows back behind them which makes the bar swing out and away from you, or you don’t pull at all and the same thing happens. You’ll know this is happening if the bar ends out in front of you when you try to catch it (or not).
Of course there is a lot more to the snatch than the high pull, but this was a great visual to stick in your brain the next time we say “don’t forget the high pull!” If you’re looking for more tips, follow FuBarbell on Facebook.
I decided to dip into the vault today for a post I originally ran long ago, but is still a worthwhile lesson. Many people think anything with fruit automatically is healthy, and that isn’t 100% true. Likewise, smoothie joints such as Robeks and Jamba Juice are some of the worst choices. Here’s why…
Today I just have a little advice for those of you who are attempting to convert your diet over to Paleo. That advice is to make sure you eat your fruit. I’m not admonishing you to get your food pyramid number of servings of fruit, but rather to actually eat your fruit.
One of the hurdles that people often have when kicking the sugar addiction is being used to drinking empty calories. While you are to be applauded if you give up soda, don’t just replace that Coke with a glass of orange juice. Slick advertising will tell you that you’re making a “healthy” choice going to get a smoothie from Robek’s/Jamba Juice/etc., but it’s quite the contrary. Going by the nutritional info available at their sites, the smoothie with the least sugar at Jamba Juice (Peach Perfection 12oz.) packs more sugar than a 12oz. can of Coke! Now you may argue that it’s fruit and therefore healthier than the HFCS in soda, and that is partially true. However, you will still wreak havoc on your insulin levels by introducing that much sugar in a single setting. This will leave you hungrier and craving more sugar in no time at all. Compare that to if you would have actually eaten an orange, where the fiber and flesh of the fruit would cause much more satiety. This is in addition to the sheer amount of calories you can consume when they are liquid versus actually eating them.
Additionally, you should strive to eat a hunk of protein at each snack or meal. Most of these smoothies are devoid of any substantial amount, and the protein “add-ins” the shops offer are laughable. Also beware of the Naked Juice line of drinks as even their offerings with protein are sky high in sugars. When reviewing their nutritional info, pay close attention to the notation that each bottle is supposed to be TWO servings. It’s not very often someone drinks less than the whole bottle in a single setting. Likewise, the nutritional info most prominently given for the smoothie chains is for a 12oz. size that many locations do not even offer! The common “regular” size is a 24oz. with a larger 32oz. (or greater) also being sold. Doing the math, you can see the astronomical amount of sugars people are consuming when they get this allegedly healthy drink.
So while it can be argued that our theoretical Grok could have juiced an orange, it is highly unlikely that the Paleo man would have thrown away so much of the fruit. Keep that in mind and make sure to eat, rather than drink, your fruit. It will keep you fuller and help avoid overconsumption. In return, your insulin levels will be at a much more manageable level and help you to reap the benefits of following a Paleo diet.
Be sure to wish James S and Kiet a happy birthday today if you see them in the gym!
**If you want a birthday post (er..roast), let us know ahead of time who to contact to write it for you. The author does not have to be a gym member, but they’ll have to contact me (Ruth) at least a week before your birthday to coordinate. If you want to write a birthday roast for someone, let me know as well!**
WOD 08.28.13
Jerk 3-3-3
AMRAP 4
3 Power Cleans (225#/143#)
30 Double Unders
Handstand walks have appeared at the CrossFit Games two years now and will most probably return. They are a great test of strength, agility, and coordination and should most definitely not be avoided. It took us some time as babies to learn how to become bipeds and it will take us adults some time to invert and perfect this skill. There are some great videos with different progressions to master this skill.
The above Carl Paoli video is one of my favorites. First of all, if you don’t know how to kick up to a handstand, check out Carl’s Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 videos. Once you can kick up comfortably into a handstand, we can start to work on walking. Also, make sure your shoulders are capable of safely holding supporting your body inverted (see this post for proper shoulder mobility).
To sum up Carl’s video, the progressions are:
1. Kick up to a wall with your hands 1 feet away from the wall. Stay tight, but begin to feel comfortable in what he calls a globally extended position, which means that your feet are slightly in front of your center of gravity, but your body does not hyperextend in the back (a la superman exercise).
2. Kick up to a wall with your hands 2 feet away and do your best to “kiss” the wall with your feet. Mastering control in this position is key because like POSE running, you’ll be learning to fall forward with your body while your hands catch up.
3. Find a waist high surface to put your feet and mimic a handstand from the waist to your hands. Shift your hips to the left and walk your hands to the left. Repeat to the right. Feel how your hips dictate where you hands go.
4. Kick up to the wall again 2.5 feet away. Before your feet reach the wall, take a few “steps” with your hands until your feet touch. Repeat from further away.
Watch Part 2, which discusses how to properly bail out if you lose your balance. With enough practice, you can aspire to walk across the gym, down the street, or even down the Santa Monica stairs like this guy here (who incidentally is Woody Harrelson’s brother).
This coming Saturday, Aug 31st we have three teams competing in the 2013 Summer Shakedown CrossFit competition. Saturday’s competition is being held at Red Wolf CrossFit in Huntington Beach, CA. Teams for this event consist of two men and two women and our teams are scattered throughout the different heats. Team Asian Invasion consists of Mike K., Michael H., Alia, and Nicole (from Karma CF). They are in Heat 5 working out at 9:12am and 2:04pm. Team Dirty 30′s is Ruth, Anna, Jon A., and myself. We are in Heat 10 and our workout times are 10:42am and 3:59pm. Our final team is Grade A Boloney with Brian, Jake, Holley, and Avelyne. Grade A Baloney is in Heat 13 which works out at 11:36am and 5:08pm. These two workouts have yet to be announced so check back later in the week.
Saturday is shaping up to be a long day for our athletes since we all have to check-in before 7:30am. There is a third workout known as a floater workout because teams sign up on a first come, first serve basis when they’d like to complete this third workout. We won’t know our third workout times until the morning of and can keep everyone up to date on our Facebook page. All we know at this point is each team member will have to perform 2 minutes of something then right into 2 minutes of Snatches for max tonnage. The video posted is pretty vague.
Intrepid has been involved with the Shakedown competition since it began, and we’re excited to put our best effort forward on Saturday. Please come down and support our athletes this Saturday and enjoy the exciting atmosphere of the 2013 Summer Shakedown!
A big CONGRATULATIONS to Katie M. who is a relatively recent addition to the Intrepid family for passing the California Fire Fighter CPAT (Candidate Physical Ability Test) this past Saturday! Katie joined Intrepid with the primary goal of passing the CPAT and take the next step towards her goal of becoming a Fire Fighter Paramedic, and in the one month she’s been with us she accomplished just that. If Katie’s been a part of your class you may have seen her after class dragging sandbags around the gym, running with her weight vest, and putting in extra work that helped her reach her goal so quickly. Keep up the great work Katie!
Look closely. You’re right, this post is about that ham in the background. Coach Jake! Jake always has a smile on his face, even during the middle of a workout f not immediately after. A karaoke-ing and dancing ball of fun, Jake coaches the Tuesda and Friday morning classes. To tell you more about him is his informative guest post form his fiancé Ashley!
Today is Jacob’s 27th birthday, so I thought it would be fun to share 27 things about him that you may or may not know.
1. Jacob graduated from the University of La Verne with a degree in movement and sport sciences with an emphasis in teaching.
2. His dream job is to open up his own gym and coach full time.
3. He has worked for Northrop Grumman for 5 years following his Mom, Dad, step Dad, and 3 brothers who also work for the same company (pretty soon someone has to take over the company J).
4. Since Jacob was born he has lived in 20 different houses, that’s a lot of moving!
5. For the last 2 years Jacob eats paleo, most of the time clean, his only weakness would be desserts, we can’t go to mall without him buying a macaroon or a chocolate candy.
6. He has coached the Redondo Beach girls freshman soccer team with his Dad for the past 5 years (2 of which they were undefeated).
7. His middle name is Carlos, named after his Dad, grandpa, older brother and now including his nephew.
8. He is one of 9 children (including steps).
9. He has 9 nieces and nephews.
10. Jacob knows practically everyone in the South Bay, we can’t go anywhere without someone yelling out “Hey Jacob, how are you?”
11. Jacob is probably one of the most competitive people I have ever met, whether it be beating Brian’s time in the gym or beating him in Dice with Buddies smartphone game.
12. I am either jealous or seriously scared that Jacob has many bromances (sorry to break your heart Brian and Nick you two are not the only ones)
13. Jacob is not Middle Eastern but he probably gets asked that or there is a joke about it every week.
14. He is actually half Ecuadorian, and half Mexican!
15. Jacob can grow facial hair over night and has a full beard by the end of the week.
16. He hates shopping, he has the same shirts and pants that he feels no reason to want or need anything new (He still wears the same sweat shirt from high school).
17. Jacobs dream vacation would be a trip to Miami, Florida
18. Jacob has a guy crush on the actor Joe Manganiello.
19. People say he looks like Matt Dillon.
20. His favorite actress is Scarlett Johansson (probably not for her looks, at least that’s what he tells me )
21. Jacob owns the full seasons of friends and probably has seen every episode hundreds of times, and yet he will still laugh at the episodes on TV.
22. Jacob is terrified of clowns.
23. He refuses to see scary movies, especially the exorcism ones, because he swears he will get possessed. (He will even cover his eyes for the previews in the theatres).
24. It’s not a surprise Jacob loves running in the WODS, but you may not know he has a La Verne track record for the distance medley.
25. Jacob used to own a 1968 Volkswagon bug, and a 1968 Chevy Nova.
26. Jacob is an awesome dancer, in the club, zumba or at a wedding. You will see him showing off his moves.
27. Jacob and I have been together for 5 years, and I can’t wait to marry him next year, I am a very lucky woman.
Happy Birthday fiancé love you lots!
Also A HUGE shout out to Barbara! She’s a 0730 regular and has shown great gains in the time that she has been with us. Barbara is an avid Yoga participant and has a very green thumb. I know that she is in the process of teaching Ruth and Sean how to build and tend a thriving garden on the far North end of the parking lot. She has a very warm smile and an infectious positive attitude. I try to sneak pictures of her but thus far I have only gotten 3/4 views. One day I will photograph this amazing woman. Have a wonderful Birthday!
TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO SIGN UP FOR THE 2013 INTREPID GAMES! BE SURE TO TURN YOUR FORMS AND MONEY IN!
No, I’m not talking about your dance moves from back in the day. I’m talking about recovering your strength for lifts and the lung capacity and endurance to complete your WODs. Oftentimes, when folks have been absent from the gym for a while due to work, vacation, or changes to their lifestyle, they notice that their lifts and WODs have suffered. Sometimes dramatically. Sometimes when only absent for a week or two. Is it frustrating? ABSOLUTELY! Do you want to hang your head and cry? Most certainly. But is it fixable? You betcha! You just need a bit of patience and determination.
- Don’t expect to pick up where you left off: Your muscles were on hiatus for X amount of days. Do you really think it’s a good idea to go straight into your 3rd week of the Wendler program? Yea, probably not. In the same way, we warm up before we start our lifts/WODs for the day, your body will need to warm up to where you were before your break. If you’re a pretty conditioned athlete, your muscles won’t atrophy in such a short period of time but give it a week or two of training before hitting that heavy lift. Be smart about your weights!
- Ease back into the WODs: Just like your muscles need reconditioning after being on break, your lung elasticity will need some reconditioning work as well. Remember when you first started CrossFit and you were huffing and puffing on your warm up lap? Yea, it may be like that for a few days. Don’t go balls to the wall on your first WOD back. Unless, you were doing sprint interval training during your vacation, your lung capacity will not be the same. It took some time to get your lungs accustomed to the fire breathing you did prior to your gym hiatus, it will take a little bit of time to get them back.
- Listen to your body: If you’re having a rough time during the warm up, that could be a pretty good indicator that your lift and WOD should be scaled down a bit. The last thing we want is for you to get frustrated and give up or worse, get frustrated, go at it harder, and end up injuring yourself. We want you to avoid injury!
Your entire coaching team can understand what it’s like to do the 2 steps back, 1 step forward dance. We’ve all been there before whether from being injured to having a heavy work schedule to having a baby. We know how frustrating it can be to look at your old numbers/times and wonder if you’ll ever get back to where you were. You will. We’ll help you get back there. Just be patient and tough!
On another note, we’d like to wish Kelly O.(camera shy!), a 6:30am regular, a very happy birthday today! Hope you have a blast on your birthday!
I have a feeling I sound like a broken record at this point, but this Friday is your last chance to sign up for the Intrepid Games that takes place on Sept 21st, so if you haven’t yet, get on it! I really don’t think I can say enough to encourage anyone who meets the minimum novice requirements (or maybe super close, there’s still a month!) to participate. Competitions are great opportunities to PR and surprise yourself with your abilities. I have yet to participate in a competition where I didn’t surprise myself with a PR in strength or skill. More importantly, and you can ask everyone who participated in last year’s competition, you get to experience the support of the Intrepid community.
I came across a Games article today that really hit home to me on the community aspect of CrossFit, even during competition. The CrossFit Games website posted an article covering data from the results of the Games, called By the Numbers. There were some cool stats, like 7: the number of masters athletes that finished Nancy sub 11 min, 6:33.6: how much faster Val Voboril finished the event “2007″ that the original winner at the Games in 2007, Jolie Gentry, and the list goes on. The last number was the most inspiring, 210,000: the difference between first and second-place prizes. They then went on to say that on Sunday of the CrossFit Games with many events still to go, Lindsey Valenzuela (2nd place) and Sam Briggs (1st place) were spotted in the hallway going through each others bags to make sure neither had forgotten anything. With over $200,000 on the line, they still remained training buddies first and competitors second.
While we don’t have a Reebok level prize purse (sorry guys, the $35 entry fee is just to cover costs), as you can imagine, the attitude of your fellow competitors will remain the same. We are Intrepid family first, competitors second (or maybe third or thirtieth). There is no need to be anxious or nervous about this event, everyone there is supporting you and will be cheering you on 100%. So get a sign up sheet from you coaches in the next couple of days and do it! I promise you won’t regret it! If you have already signed up, make sure you get your goals up on the goal board and get after them, 30 days left!
We can still use more volunteers, so please either sign up at the gym on the board on the office door or email me @ [email protected]. Thanks!
Coach “Jake at Intrepid” is famous! Val Voboril mentions him in her chat with the guys from WODCAST PODCAST. Listen to episode 76 at about 1:13. He may not have recognized her at first, but she did say “he was great!”
WOD 08.22.13
Skills Day
Mobility: Pecs, hamstring, or hips
Yoke and Farmer’s Carry
Optional WOD:
NFT (Not for time)
6 x 15 yd Yoke Carry
Throughout your life, you have probably found that dressings can help make almost any veggie more palatable. Even the average American on the SAD will choke down a salad if they drown it in enough ranch. However, when you embark on a Whole30, most of those Hidden Canyon brand dressings are off limits to their use of poor quality oils, sugars galore and more additives than you can pronounce.
Of course, we encourage you to make your own dressing, but for some, they find that to be so. much. work. I recently became aware of a brand of dressings that not only have great ingredients, but many of their offerings are Whole9 approved! This company is called Tessamae’s and you will be impressed by the variety they have for sale. You can sort on their website by “Paleo” or “Whole30″ to find those that fit your needs.
Personally, I started with two that caught my eye — their hot wing sauce and Matty’s BBQ sauce. For a brief review, the BBQ sauce left me a little disappointed. I found it to have a very heavy balsamic vinegar taste and not much else. However, the hot wing sauce is great (I tried it with chicken).
Take a look at their site and see what might pique your interest. You are able to order on the site or there are also many varieties that are available at Whole Foods.
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