CrossFit Works » crossfit games

Everyday is Training Day!!!

Jen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:18:09 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

I LOVE this lady! Rain, dirt, no fancy stuff. No juice bar, no coffee bar, no music. No air conditioning, no heat. Bare Bones…and Beast Mode.

And scorpion, diamond hand stand pushups… I think CrossFit HQ is filing this away right now for the 2012 Games.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Practice Olympic Lifting Meet and Competition Meeting

Jen — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:48:30 +0000

It hasn’t taken long for the lull of the Tucson summer to wear off and be replaced by an upcoming flurry of events! Lazing around in a heat-induced daze is done.

I sincerely hope will be seeing these two on the evening of August 29th!!

This Saturday August 20th at East Valley CrossFit in Chandler, AZ there will be a practice Olympic Lifting Meet called the Panda Bear Invitational. The purpose of this meet is to give folks who would like to eventually compete in USA Weightlifting meets a chance to lift in that set up: practise judging, practise choosing opening attempts and subsequent lifts and just getting familiar with the way a weightlifting meet is organized. Please talk to Chris or email him at chris@crossfitworks.com if you are interested in lifting or just in coming up to watch your fellow CrossFitters lift. Because all of our CrossFit Kids coaches are also practicing, serious athletes, there will be no CrossFit Kids classes this Saturday so that the Kids coaches can go lift in the practice meet. I know that I will be taking my sons up to Chandler to watch. The chance to introduce kids to a new sport is a special opportunity. There is a world of kids in our community that never want to play soccer or basketball. Olympic Weightlifting is a sport that often appeals to kids who do not enjoy typical team sports.

Next on your training calendar is Monday August 29th at 7:30pm. Chris and I will host a meeting for anyone interested in training for the 2012 CrossFit Games. You must attend this meeting if you are interested in competing as an individual, on our Affiliate team or as a Master’s athlete. This meeting is also required for anyone who will be a training partner or serious support person for someone training for the Games. This will not be a workout, rather we will sit down and talk about our approach to the next seven months. We will talk about how the preparation will be individualized, how and when we will train together and what Chris and I will expect from you as athletes. I want to emphasize here that Chris and I would like to see a HUGE group of you at this meeting. Please do not rule yourself out because you don’t think you can do it. This is the time to come and think about it. It is important to have all serious athletes attend this meeting. Even if you think there are people in the gym who are more likely than you to “make it” you might still be a vitally important part of the preparation. Monday, August 29th at 7:30pm. See you there.

Open Sectional #3 and ALL GYM CHALLENGE

Jen — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:07:30 +0000

Hey everyone,

Don’t forget to come on in and support the athletes and your hopeful Affiliate Team as they perform the third 2011 CrossFit Games Open Sectional workout. This Thur night at 6pm.

We have some very nice, and some slightly ferocious rivalries going on for the ALL GYM Team Challenge. I’ve got a mailbox full of food journals, we’ve got team cheers. Everything is ON!! There are 8 teams participating in this 5 week challenge. We could take bets…

ALL GYM TEAM CHALLENGE DETAILS and HIGH STANDARDS

Jen — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:20:00 +0000

Those of you participating in the ALL GYM Team Challenge this Saturday…we will meet at 8:30am on Saturday at the southwest corner of Reid Park (22nd and Country Club). We should easily be finished by 10:00am if we can get started on time!

These are some pictures from our Open Sectional workout last night. Of course the athletes were incredible and we’ll hear more about them in the future, but I want to take this moment to appreciate the volunteers who did the judging. There is quite a lot of discussion about how challenging it was to judge the pushups on this workout. Hosting these types of events (where unethical score reporting can cost a gym their Affiliation) is a serious undertaking, but I never have to worry about that. We have a huge crew of people who are confident and strong and place the standards that CrossFit Headquarters specifies, in the highest regard. All the athletes and our staff are extremely grateful for your judging! Thank you to Crandall, Linda, Chris L, Chauncey, Bryon, Keith F., Ruben, David M., and Ben T. who came only to support the athletes by judging for them.

“Franxiety” or “Frantastic”

Jen — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:53:41 +0000

Linda is Frantastically not Franxious.

Or a little of both?? There were so many good “Fran” moments this time around. JSchae got it done in 4:24 I think, Summer was a hair under 5minutes. We had a bunch of people take a minute or two off their previous times like Crandall and Samantha, and a bunch do it prescribed for the first time too like Sarah L. Incremental progress is what it is all about!

Erik M. did a lightening fast climber version of “Fran”.

Mark L. with 101 pushups counts for Alex C. who did 103.

We have a ton of new numbers on the record board for the max pushups. There were some awesome numbers from the ladies too.

The Masters WOD this week was also big for a lot of us. PRs by the handful on the max thruster and max power snatch.

Ho Ho Ho it is going to be a good week. Don’t forget to try to stop by the gym for the most awesome entertainment ever on Thursday nights for the next 6 wks. CrossFit Games Open Sectionals.

Check back tomorrow for scheduling changes.

The Mental Game

Jen — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:31:02 +0000

I had the opportunity to spend some time with the folks in your Affiliate who are preparing for the CrossFit Games Open Sectionals. In the next few weeks, beginning on March 15, there is a small group of your fellow crossfitters who will perform the qualifying sectional workouts. They are already training twice per day several days a week. They are excited, nervous, tired and sore. On Friday night we met to talk about the Mental Game of crossfit. Jordan Simmons and Ruben Bravo led the meeting. We met to talk about what skills and strategies are involved in staying focused during a workout or competition. Not quitting, not losing focus, not getting frustrated, not letting the challenge of the workout get the best of you. There were so many valuable observations. In the next few weeks all of us will be enriched by the hard work of these folks preparing for the Open Sectionals and they will be supported by our encouragement of them. Every day, the best athletes in our gym are inspired by your efforts and everyday they inspire you. There is no barrier between the top performers and the newest among us. We all face the same challenge each time we grip the barbell or watch the clock. One thing we talked about was the feeling you get after you triumph over a workout as compared to the feeling you get after you get stomped by a workout. We talked about how maybe you leave after getting a PR really happy, content and proud. How do you leave after taking the longest time in the gym? What about the idea that you should leave just as happy and smiling after taking forever on a workout if you didn’t quit. If you kept at it one rep at a time. If you finished. Can you be just as pleased with yourself if you persevere as if you place first? I hope you can. Here is one of the videos that Ruben showed to us at the meeting. Two things stood out for us: we also like to be the last one on the treadmill and one-brick-at-a-time. Shout out to everyone who did the Master’s WOD on Saturday. That was hard!! That was a one-brick-at-a-time one for sure.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2011 Winter Open Registration Open, Don’t Waste Time

Jen — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 23:40:40 +0000

Yo Yo Yo, the 2011 Winter Open is already half-full after only having registration open for one hour. Check www.winteropen.com for registration details. Don’t miss your chance to compete for $1000. It will fill up very soon!

From unsponsored, regular old, hard-working boxing crossfitters to…

nutritionally-supplemented hard working, boxing crossfitters!!!! Congratulations to Rich, Alejandro and Robert on receiving the post workout nutrition support they so desperately needed from Progenex. Progenex is a maker of supplementary nutrition products for athletes and a supporter of the CrossFit Games. Steve’s Club of Tucson is incredibly grateful for Progenex’s support of our young athletes.

A Day in the Life at CrossFit Works

Jen — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:09:49 +0000

A few of Wednesday’s gym highlights!

Check out Jennifer S. with her morning Ladies’ CrossFit Bootcamp Crew! This six week program emphasizes quick, focused body composition changes and fun workouts. These brave women already have been through Tabata squats and they had Bryon measure body fat percentage with the calipers. We currently have two Ladies CrossFit Bootcamps underway. One meets at 7:15am M, W, F and the other is 2:30pm M, W and F. These two bootcamps are closed, but Jennifer is already planning the next sessions to begin around the New Year. If you are interested please email jschae@crossfitworks.com and let her know!!

At 6pm Kevin Nichols (in orange), Directory of our CrossFit Kids Program explains the content for the Wednesday night Mobility and Recovery Class.

I do believe that all mobility and recovery sessions end with a giant tug-of-war anchored by one of Sunnyside’s strongest baseball players, see photo below!

Bruce Montoya of www.combatfit.webs.com is currently holding a Wednesday afternoon Israeli Krav Maga series. Bruce has been teaching Krav Maga and other self defense courses at CrossFit Works for more than a year. He is an excellent instructor.

There was an unpleasant looking version of a farmer carry going on in the back alley.

I think this was the unofficial advisory board for the above-pictured activity.

Finally, at the tail end of the day you might catch someone doing their Games prep strength progression. You might also see this same young man perfect his power clean which will now be frightfully BIG!

Training for the 2011 CF Games…

Jen — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:21:46 +0000

In this video you can see some super creative strong guys from Texas getting ready for the CF Games. They have their diet dialed in too. I like their approach quite a lot and I feel good about my rowing technique after watching this… The guy on the rower is the guy who motivated me to improve my embarrassing bench press because he makes it look like the best lift in the world. Those of you who rowed a marathon a few days ago will wish it had been like this.

Click here to view the embedded video.

No, really. Are you interested in training for the 2011 CF Games? By October 10 you must send an email to jen@crossfitworks.com if you would like to prepare for the Games. It doesn’t matter now whether you are interested in the Master’s Division, the Team competition or the individual competition. It doesn’t matter whether you think you would even remotely qualify to compete or win a spot on our Affiliate team. It doesn’t matter what your schedule is. Don’t begin this decision process by asking what you will have to do and when you will do it and how it will work. Decide that you want to push your fitness level to the highest you can. Make that decision first. Then we will discuss the details. Here is what matters:

1. You are willing to make a comittment to additional training outside your 3 day a week CrossFit Works program.

2. You will be self-motivated and you will record your workout information and share it with others.

3. You will be willing to change the way you eat if your coach believes it is impacting your training.

4. You will be willing to prioritize rest and recovery.

The final consideration is your present level of CrossFitness. You should be in a position to benefitting from additional training. If you are still making good linear progress from the regular crossfit workouts then you likely do not need additional training. You should be doing most of our workouts as prescribed. Not all of them and you don’t have to be finishing them in the cut off times, but you should be close to just walking in the door and doing what it says on the white board. I encourage all of you who are regularly in the top 10-15 finishers in this gym to consider training for the CF Games. We have a lot of time between now and the Games and I want people to start now if you even remotely think you will be interested. It won’t be easy to jump in later.

Oh WOW!! CrossFit Games are underway

Jen — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:15:08 +0000

Chris Spealler dominates the first event.

Last night was the first event of the 2010 CrossFit Games. It was 9-7-5 muscle ups and squat snatch (135/95). Muscleups had to be fully extended and turned out. The battle amongst the women was amazingly unpredictable with the possible exception of the winner-the awesome Kristin Clever. Final heats, supposedly stacked with the more highly ranked athletes, underperformed relative to the early heats. The final heat amongst the men was wild! Chris Spealler took first place despite the fact that the Snatch weight is not that much off his own body weight. No one was surpised to see Spealler dominate the muscle ups, but let’s not miss the most important point…He outperformed MANY larger men in the snatch reps, solidifying the idea that keeping your mental focus and not f***ing up your technique by rushing and getting sloppy is sometimes just as good as being strong as a bear. If you’d like to watch the final men’s heat go to the live streamed archives and check in for around 9:30pm Friday night.

OK-don’t forget we are gathering at Paul and Sarah’s to watch the final heats on Sunday. The directions and phone number are posted in the comments.