CFO throwdown

Okay, so this is a day late and a dollar short, but here what happened at the CFO throwdown.  First, they are definitely a bunch of heavy lifters.  There was a lot of great competition, and the air really got us going.  We had two teams, Erik H., Caleb and Grace T on one team, and Brian F., Niraj and myself on another.  The workout was team: 100 185# cleans, 100 135# push jerks and 100 burpees.  All of us scaled,  Erik's team went 155# and we went 135#.  All of us thought, at the end, that we could have gone heavier.  The competition does that to you.  It really pushes what you think you can do (although we all left saying that we were glad we kept to the weight we did and didn't leave with any injuries).  There were definitely some people that had no business lifting the weight they did (horrid form), but that is what competition does to you.

So get in on the next ones.  CF Silicon Valley on the 7th of March and CF Diablo on the 14th.  (I won't be in town for either.)

Niraj linked some really great photos:

Flickr

Picturetrail

Flickr2

Friday and Saturday class is cancelled

We never got a key and that was the final thing.  Sorry if you don't get this.  See you next week.

Is anyone going to Friday nigh practice

Let me know, because I think I am covering the class.  Texting would be the best way 408-656-7007.

Lance

Elite Team Practice

Is anyone available to cover the practices times this week? Friday 7pm and Saturday whenever (since I won't be here). I'll give you my key to open and close the place. I'll leave a workout plan. And what's up with people not showing up to practice? Do these times work or would another time work? Please post to comments.

Great Job Team SJ

I just wanted to send a shout out to all you BAD ASSES that competed at the CFO Throwdown. GREAT JOB! It is difficult to overcome that mindfuck sometimes. I think most of you were surprised in your own abilities. It's a crazy thing when all that energy is flowing around you, adrenaline starts pumping, and people start cheering. Competition is awesome. Congratulations to the Elite team and a special CONGRATS to Brian Forte, Grace Thai, and Caleb for bringing in the big guns. Way to go! I hope that experience helped you become more confident in yourselves and your abilities. Keep up the good work everyone. For those of you out injured, be patient with recovery. It takes time to heal. Next throwdown will be at Silicon Valley; hopefully we can start hyping it up to get some SJ folks out to cheer us on. Please post to comments your own experience with this one.

For Tomorrow

If any one is reading this, we need people.  Don't let the weight intimidate.  We can scale, but we need people to compete.  I am leaving from CFSJ @9:30-9:45.  Either see you there or call me 408-656-7007

CF Oakland Throwdown

I don't know if many people have had a chance to check out the CF oakland website for the WOD but it is a little crazy. It will definitely put us through our paces. (Eat your Wheaties.) We should carpool. I know that I'll be staying a little later to hit a restaurant in Oaktown after, so if you have no reason to get back soon, give me a call for a ride 408-656-7007.

The workout will involve 3-person teams. For scoring purposes, results will only count if there's at least one woman on the team. This doesn't mean that all comers won't be welcome (they most definitely will be), it just means you won't be in the running if you compete with an all-male team.

The Workout:

For Time:

100 power cleans @ 185#/115# (floor to shoulder)
100 push jerks @ 135#/95# (shoulder to overhead)

Followed by 100 burpees

The Rules:

1. During the barbell lifts, only two people can be going at once (one person will always be resting).
2. During burpees, only one person can be going at once (two people will always be resting).
3. The burpees cannot be started until both of the barbell exercises are complete (100 reps of power cleans and push jerks are done with).
4. Teams can divide up the reps for each exercise however they see fit. Everyone on the team must do at least one rep of each of the exercises for their score to count.

The descriptions we've chosen for the barbell lifts can only loosely be called power clean and push jerk. For all intents and purposes, for a rep to count for the clean, you have to move the barbell from the floor to racked on your shoulders, with legs and hips fully extended. For a rep to count for the jerk, you have to move the barbell from your shoulders to overhead, with a portion of the ear visible in front of the shoulder, and with arms, legs, and hips fully extended.

This means you can power clean the barbell; you can deadlift and reverse curl it, you can do whatever you need to. It means you can shoulder press the weight overhead, you can push press, push jerk, or split jerk it. Obviously, more efficient technique will be rewarded, but the choice is yours. You simply have to meet the standards for the movement for a rep to count.

Click on the "Continue reading..." link below to see photos of the bottom position and top position for the three movements that will be contested this Saturday (power clean, push jerk, and burpee). These are the movement standards for the competition. Read them, study them, know them.

And one more note: Scaling of the workout will be allowed.

Upcoming events

Sat Feb 21: CrossFit Oakland
Sat Mar 14: Diablo CrossFit
Sat Apr 4: CrossFit Santa Clara
Sat May 9: CrossFit San Francisco
Sat May 30: CrossFit One World

Each competition is governed by house rules, meaning that the hosting Affiliate gym gets to come up with the workout.

The workout CFO is putting together on Saturday, Feb 21 will be posted on the CFO blog two days prior to the day of competition, Thursday, Feb 19. The only thing that CFO will let out of the bag at this point is that the competition will involve three-person teams, ideally two males and one female.

Please Post if you plan on attending or not to comments.

Practice will be Friday ONLY this week.

CrossFit Strenth Bias

I'm not sure if any of you subscribe to the Journal, but I came across this great article the other day. Lately we've been talking a lot about strength development and how strength helps complete a lot of the WOD's in shorter times. Bingo, who regularly posts on the main site as an admin, and a few others have been testing various workout methods to greatly improve strength and at the same time maintain or improve Met-Con abilities. They've spent the past 5 years, if I recall correctly, honing in on a program they feel will deliver these results. 

Take a look at this article and let me know what you think. I'd like to try a couple of cycles to see what happens. Of course after my achilles fully heals, but nonetheless, I'd like to try it out. 

Let me know if you don't have a subscription to the Journal & I'll email you the article. 

Feedback...thoughts?

Buck Furpees

Damn, this being sick crap really has its limits (duh).  By the time I get better I'll probably have 700 burpees to do.  Too far along to give up, but this challenge is really making hard to recover between workouts.  I did Fiona's workout on Weds and had real trouble getting through 21 push ups.  My shoulders felt like I had pikes in them.  Maybe we should think twice before doing this crap again???  It really takes the variance out of a work out when you are doing the same movement for days in a row.

It is good to hear that Jason is doing well and I know that we look forward to seeing you back soon.  Take it easy.

Lastly, I came across this video on youtube.  Some of the strongest deadlifters are not the biggest.

On the road to recovery

Well, I thought I'd let people know how I'm doing. The surgery went well and the pain preceding the surgery was minimal. The pain post surgery is far worse. I quickly realized that Vicodin doesn't work well, so I'm now on Dervocet...much better pain killer for me. I've pretty much been on my back these last few days with my leg elevated. I have a follow up appointment Tuesday and begin PT the following week. The pain is decreasing and I'm trying to wait as long as possible before taking the meds, so I can get off of them ASAP. The hardest part so far is being still, lying on my back doing little to nothing. I hope once PT begins I can start doing some simple exercises, but we'll see what the doc and therapist say. Either way, I'm trying to be as patient as possible so I can return as quickly as possible. 

I'd like to thank everyone for their kind words and messages...I really appreciate you. 

Jason

NO class on saturday.

Elite class is 7 on fri. and 1:30 on sat

What time is practice this week?

The Fishgame, Superbowl and nothing new

Hey, just something that I noticed.  It seemed that on everyone's site (except ours) there were tons of posts on the fishgame @ Oneworld.  I actually stopped by after a school function I had to attend, and by all accounts none of the big posters (i.e. Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, Los Gatos) went.  The usuals (Diablo, Unlimited) were there, but definitely not the turn out I thought.  Maybe its just people actually have lives outside of crossfit.  Damn.

Congrats to all the Steeler fans.  See you all this week.  Jason, hope the surgery goes well, our thoughts are with you.  Let us know if you need help.

BTW my knuckle-headed friend Jon from Oneworld said that he would put a team from his box against anyone.  (When I reminded him that we invited and they turned down he shut it.)  I think there might be a challenge coming up.  (And I saw their board.  Our names would be all over that thing.)