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Nicole N. is getting married on Saturday, June 22! We get to celebrate with a wedding WOD!

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Legendary Competitor Tryout Results

Mino & Chelsea Clean & Jerk

The tryouts are over and the results are in!

Rx Team:

• Andrea


• Chelsea


• Alex Hall


• Zach Seale

Sc Team:

• Jacqui


• Jill


• Mino


• Harold

Jacqui and Mino are the Rx Team alternates. Jess Brown-Reddit and Jed are the SC team alternates.

Rank	Name	score	Name	Score
1	Alex/Zach	7	Andi	3
2			Chelsea	5
3	Mino	9	Jacqui	11
4	Harold	13	Jill	12
5	Jed	14	Jess Brown-Reddit	13
6	Jeff	18
7	Joe	21
8	Sam	26
9	Mani	29
10	David	32
11	Mike K	DNF

This was a lot of fun! Many PRs and a new club record shared by Andrea and Chelsea: 165 pound Clean & Jerk. Chelsea also Cleaned 175 pounds. Andrea was dominant in the women’s competition with three 1st place finishes (tied for first on event one, the C&J ladder with Chelsea). The Men’s competition was close with Alex and Zach exactly tied. 7 points each, tied for 3rd on the first event with 235 pound Clean & Jerks. Zach won event two the longer AMRAP and alex took 3rd. On the final event this was exactly reversed with Alex in 1st and Zach in 3rd. Mino crushed the 1st event with a 295 pound Clean & Jerk, but was hurt by a relatively poor showing in the 10 minute AMRAP, 6th place. The double-unders tripped him up. On the final event he took 2nd with 42 225 pound deadlifts and 7 muscle-ups, 2 reps behind Alex Hall who got 2 muscle-ups in the second round, and 1 rep ahead of Zach who just could not finish the deadlifts.

 

Legendary Competitor Tryout Results

Saturday 130615

How Peter rolls!

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Friday 130614

Mino’s double-leopard-style

 

Saturday schedule clarification!

Tryouts begin 7am and end at 10am, open to all CFEBers!

Classes start 10:15am, 11:15am, and 12:15pm (sorry 9:15-ers)

Friday 130614

Blue-Green Primal Powerhouse

For those who asked, we use a L’Equip RPM Blender. Sadly the new model lacks the tachometer. It easily made two servings of the below.

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup frozen blue kale

1/2 cup frozen spinach

1 tablespoon almond butter

1 teaspoon chopped ginger

1 teaspoon flax oil

1 scoop unflavored isopure

1 teaspoon creatine (optional)

Blue-Green Primal Powerhouse

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Tuesday 130611

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Nutritional Powerhouse

Trouble getting your vegetables in? Try this:

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup carrot juice

1 cup spinach

1 cup kale

1/2 cup pineapple

1/2 cup strawberries

1 teaspoon ginger

1 tablespoon almond butter

1 teaspoon flax oil

1 scoops isopure unflavored whey protein

Tangy, tart, not too sweet and packed with macro and micro nutrients.

Nutritional Powerhouse

Monday 130610

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Legendary Competitor Tryouts June 16, 2013

I have paid for two teams, one Scaled, and one Rx, for the NorCal Affiliate Showcase:

If you can do 80-90% of stuff Rx, you should be fine if not brilliant in the Rx division. They could not, or course give me exact details, but it seems unlikely you will have to do muscle-ups or an outrageous weight, even in the Rx Division.

We will have tryouts (essentially an in-house throw-down) on Saturday June 15th at 8AM at GWPC.

The top eight finishers will compete for us. The top two males and females will compete in the Rx division. The third and fourth place finishers will compete in the SC division for us. The third place male and female will be the Rx division alternate, and the fifth place male and female finisher will be the SC team alternate.

Event One:

Clean & Jerk Ladder;

In 15:00;

Starting at 95/135, add weight to lift in five, ten pound or twenty pound increments until you can no longer continue (you must use the same jumps the whole way through, IE 95,100,105 -OR- 95,105,115).

Event Two:

AMRAP in 10:00

100 Double-Under

50 Wall-Ball

20 Burpees

20 T2B

20 Pull-ups

In case of tie, time to complete previous set breaks tie. IE: 29/2:40 beats 29/2:50

Event Three:

AMRAP in 3:00

21 Deadlift 225/155

7 Ring Muscle-Up

In case of tie, time to complete previous set breaks tie. IE: 29/2:40 beats 29/2:50

Legendary Competitor Tryouts June 16, 2013

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Saturday 130908

Psst! Hey buddy… you wanna see some dumbbells?

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Tuesday 130604

One of CFEB’s favorite athletes, Elisabeth Akinwale

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Test Post from CrossFit East Bay

Test Post from CrossFit East Bay http://www.crossfiteastbay.com

Benchmark Update

I have not updated this blog in some time, however I have improved in quite a few areas.

I am currently doing Wendler's 5/3/1 and working out every other day. I am doing assistance exercises, conditioning and climbing all on the same day with a day off between everything, which is working well. Recommended for the over-40 set.

Benchmarks: recent PRs in italic;

Hips
-100 free squats L2
-295 lb back squat (1.5x bw) L3 April 2009
-405x2 lb deadlift 2.25x+ bw) L3 Aug 2010
-24 inch standing vertical jump L2 2009
Push
-50Push-ups L2 Oct 2007
-30 Push-ups on rings L3
-235 lb Bench Press (1.3x bw) L3 Aug 2010
-175 lb Shoulder Press (.96x bw) L3 Aug 2010
-11 HSPU L3 July 2010
-21 Dip on rings L2 Oct 2007
Pull
-20-foot Rope Climb (no feet) L3 2006
-205 lb Power Clean L3 Aug 2010
-37 Pull-Ups L2 Aug 2010
18 C2B Pull-Ups 11-08
-2 Muscle-up on bar (perfect) L2 April 2008
-6 Muscle-ups on rings (kip) L2 April 2008
-3 Muscle-up on rings from full hang May 2008
Core
-30 V-ups L2
-15 Hanging Knees to Elbows L2
-10 second L-sit L1
-195X2 lb OHS (1x+ bw) L3 CrossFit Games 2009
-Sandbag carry (modified) 100 lbs, 1 mile L3 2007
-2:50 min 800-meter Run L3 - Norcal Sectional 2010
-7:39 min 2000-meter Row May 2009
-Helen: 10:13 L2
-1 mile run 6:27 L2
Speed
-1:11 min 400-meter run L3 Jan 2010
-1:26 min 500-meter Row L3 Dec 2006
-135 lbs Power Snatch L2

Other Benchmarks:

-Cindy 21 + 8 push-ups December 2007
-Clean & Jerk 185 2009
-Fight Gone Bad 309 FGB IV 2009
-Fran 5:45 2007
-Filthy Fifty 21:30 2008
-Grace 4:08 Aug 2010
-Linda 22:31 11-07
-Push-Jerk 195 04.09
-Murph C2B/20# Vest 54:40 Oct 2008

Highest Grade Climbs:

Indoors;
5.11b on-sight 2010
V5 redpoint 2010

Outdoors
5.10a, redpoint 97 feet 2009

Games Training WOD #5

Warm-Up

1.    Jump rope: single-unders, alternating feet, high knees, one foot, front cross, backwards, then 30 double-unders (or 1X max consecutive) for time.

2.    Dynamic Stretching

3.    Dowel Movements:

i.       Behind the neck wide grip press moving into narrow grip as the shoulders warm up. 

ii.     Snatch hang position: shrug, muscle snatch, power snatch, and full squat snatch. 

iii.   Snatch bottom start position: snatch deadlift, snatch shrug, muscle snatch, power snatch, and full squat snatch. 

iv.   Jerk width grip grip and the dowel placed behind the neck: press, push press, jerk. 

v.     Clean hang position: shrug, muscle clean, power clean, and full squat clean. 

vi.   Clean bottom start position: clean deadlift, clean shrug, muscle clean, power clean, and full squat clean. 

4.    Run 800m at 80-85% of max perceived effort.  Minimize the sound of all footfalls as much as possible; if this requires slowing down to achieve desired effect slow down as much as necessary.

5.    3X10 wall ball full squat start and finish best form possible.  Think about following through on the finish to ensure that ball returns where you want it to.

6.    3X butterfly kipping pull-up practice or attempts.  Without letting go of the bar complete 3 C2B pull-ups after each attempt at the butterfly kips. 

7.    3X3 muscle-ups.  Use rings and the best form you are capable of. Break up the sets if necessary to perform with the best form that you are capable of.

8.    3X3 pistols each leg.  Use perfect form or as best as possible and minimum supported if necessary.

Workout: record results and numbers for now I will work on putting together a sheet for entering them into this weekend.

9.    Fran C2B (21-15-9 Thruster (95# men, 65# women), C2B pull-ups)

10.                     Rest 15 minutes keep warm

11.                     Row 2k

Cool Down:

12.                     Foam roll focusing particularly on sore or tight areas

13.                     Static stretching

What You Should Eat

Double Re-Blog

Twelve days of Christmas No-Equipment WODS From CrossFit Virtuosity

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Via the blog of Princess Raindrop AKA Boss Arce: she has agreed to be one of my test pilots for the primal/paleo diet - I have been eating mostly this way for two months, during which time I have lost weight and retained performance and I am nearly ready to advocate zone/primal for all. Let me know if you want to join us in this experiment before I roll it out more "officially", probably Jan 1.

"Polly and I attended at talk at Catalyst by Mark Sissons. Mark is the author of the Primal Blueprint, a book about "going primal". Basically reverting back to a diet that more closely resembles what we have evolved to eat - a hunter-gatherer diet. Namely, meats and other natural fat sources (nuts and oil) and carbohydrates coming from vegetables and fruit.

As I see it we have two conflicting evolutionary trends when it comes to food. The first is our physical evolution - what we have evolved to eat over millions of years. The second is our industrial food evolution - how to affordably produce enough food to feed an ever growing population. These two trends don't reconcile with each other and, at some point, in order to achieve optimal health, we have to leave behind the food of convenience that is negatively impacting us physically and financially and eat according to where we've evolved.

I was raised eating rice, bread, pasta, etc. Earlier this year I cut way back on those types of foods and I'll tell you this - life was BORING. Sure I lost weight, got stronger, faster, fitter, ate fat and plenty of meat and tons of eggs and that's all great but I did miss those filling grains. They are comfort foods and it's hard to undo that mind/body connection. Eggs - not so comforting. Meats - not comforting much at all and lots of chewing. I like eating to be brief and intense and I don't like tons of chewing.
- These are the types of things that make it difficult to imagine a life without grains and breads and pasta and BEER. What makes it easier is knowing that it's absolutely the right thing to do for so many reasons, not the least of which is the potential for living really well. I'm not so concerned with living for fucking ever but I would like the time that I am around to be really really good.

- This is why I like the 80/20 rule. 80% primal; 20% not quite. Dairy may be my remaining source of comfort - the 20%".

Double Re-Blog

12 days of Christmas No-Equipment WODS FromCrossFit Virtuosity

---

Via the blog of Princess Raindrop AKA Boss Arce: she has agreed to be one of my test pilots for the primal/paleo diet - I have been eating mostly this way for two months, during which time I have lost weight and retained performance and I am nearly ready to advocate zone/primal for all. Let me know if you want to join us in this experiment before I roll it out more "officially", probably Jan 1.

"Polly and I attended at talk at Catalyst by Mark Sissons. Mark is the author of the Primal Blueprint, a book about "going primal". Basically reverting back to a diet that more closely resembles what we have evolved to eat - a hunter-gatherer diet. Namely, meats and other natural fat sources (nuts and oil) and carbohydrates coming from vegetables and fruit.

As I see it we have two conflicting evolutionary trends when it comes to food. The first is our physical evolution - what we have evolved to eat over millions of years. The second is our industrial food evolution - how to affordably produce enough food to feed an ever growing population. These two trends don't reconcile with each other and, at some point, in order to achieve optimal health, we have to leave behind the food of convenience that is negatively impacting us physically and financially and eat according to where we've evolved.

I was raised eating rice, bread, pasta, etc. Earlier this year I cut way back on those types of foods and I'll tell you this - life was BORING. Sure I lost weight, got stronger, faster, fitter, ate fat and plenty of meat and tons of eggs and that's all great but I did miss those filling grains. They are comfort foods and it's hard to undo that mind/body connection. Eggs - not so comforting. Meats - not comforting much at all and lots of chewing. I like eating to be brief and intense and I don't like tons of chewing.
- These are the types of things that make it difficult to imagine a life without grains and breads and pasta and BEER. What makes it easier is knowing that it's absolutely the right thing to do for so many reasons, not the least of which is the potential for living really well. I'm not so concerned with living for fucking ever but I would like the time that I am around to be really really good.

- This is why I like the 80/20 rule. 80% primal; 20% not quite. Dairy may be my remaining source of comfort - the 20%".

NYC Trip

720 Pound Tire Flip @ CrossFit Virtuosity

I had a great week in New York: I trained and taught classes at

CrossFit Virtuosity, which may be the most awesome CF Box around.

I got to train with Keith and Jay:

They totally kicked my ass on THIS workout:

10 min AMRAP of the combo (1 rep for cycle) at 135#:
Power Snatch
Back Squat
Rack Jerk
Front Squat
Push Press

Frustrating due to my lousy snatch. I could not even RX it, had to scale to 115# and still got crushed with only 13 rounds. I just could not get two in a row to save my life.

The next day I treated them to THIS lovely workout, perhaps the hardest one I have ever done. I considered leaving the building when all the cursing and yelling started, but of course, they loved it. CFEB will have to do this soon.

5 Rounds:

5 thruster 155/95
10 Burpee

Try it at home!

My response to the message thread on robbwolf.com entitled "The Black Box Summit Or How I Got Fired from the CrossFit Nutrition Certification"

CrossFit is currently experiencing it's biggest controversy so far, at least on-line. Fallout from the Black Box summit, and the evident firing of Robb Wolf from teaching the nutrition cert has sparked some lively debate:


Robb Wolf on Being Fired from Nutrition Cert

Greg Everett on what happened

Russel Berger on what happened

A rather balanced analysis of what happened

A very interesting take on what happened/is happening

I meant to write a brief, concise post on Robb's blog about this. Brevity, alas, is not my strong suit, and since writing it I had a few thoughts that I wished to include. Here is my opinion for any who care, for the record.

My response to the message thread on robbwolf.com entitled "The Black Box Summit Or How I Got Fired from the CrossFit Nutrition Certification" (edited for clarity)

I have now read all 425 plus comments that came before this, and all of the source material.

I am an affiliate owner (CrossFit East Bay in Oakland CA) and I know or have met many of the principals here. Greg Glassman changed my life, and while I don't revere him as anything more than a fitness visionary, it is, to me, frankly ridiculous how little credit some people are giving him. I will post below his best response to such misunderstandings. For once, I largely agree with Barry Cooper, above.

I am a bit older (43) and have been into fitness since the 1980s. I used to read every fitness magazine I could get my hands on for, I guess, decades. I NEVER saw anything remotely like CF. I never heard of a double-under, a muscle-up, a kipping pull-up, a dynamax ball (or wall-ball), a thruster, a kettlebell, the zone diet, paleo, IF, tabata, etc etc etc. I was vaguely aware that rings existed and that these weird guys in tights lifted huge funny looking weights in the Olympics, and that a rower existed, but it never occurred to me to use these things. I never saw anything remotely like Fight Gone Bad, and I challenge anyone to point me to something like FGB that pre-dates CrossFit. When I discovered CF in 03 or 04 it sounded interesting, and I dabbled, but not until I trained with Josh and Keith at CFNYC Black Box, the 18th affiliate, was my mind blown.

As I said I am a bit older, and have an administration background as well. I am familiar with internecine disputes, and have mediated many. I am disappointed in what I am seeing here from all sides. There is a whole lot of dick-measuring and airing of grievances, old and new, going on. While there may have been some pent-up feeling that needed to be discharged, it has been done, the issues are out there, and, as an affiliate owner and member of this community I ask that we take a deep breath and dial it back a notch on all sides.

This community has experienced explosive growth, and I think it is silly to pretend there are no issues associated with that growth. As a community we have added, are adding, quality on the individual affiliate and regional level daily. It is questionable as to whether HQ is keeping up with or taking advantage of all of the great stuff that is coming out of our open-source fitness model. Simply put, there are some potential, or actual, quality issues. A med ball clean might not be the best progression to the clean. Teaching someone with zero experience how to snatch with a PVC pipe does not prepare them optimally to teach the snatch. The explanation that it is impractical to use barbells with so many people does not hold water. Inconvenient, yes, expensive, yes. Impractical, no. It is possible that the current programming template of .com could be improved. I'm not suggesting I know how, but this is fitness, not religion, and blind allegiance to the .coms is against the spirit of CrossFit. To quote Greg Glassman speaking to me personally: "the next big innovation in CrossFit will come from outside of my intuition". It is clear that a whole foods diet is healthier than Zoning Pringles, Coors Lite and Skirt steak (personally I think zone/paleo + milk is the way to go). The level 1 Cert is not as valuable a product as it was when Coach taught them himself (I have been to both versions). The .com only to prepare for the games is not optimal unless one already has perfect balance in all 10 areas of fitness. Even then training once a day to prepare for a multi-day multi-event competition would be insanity.

Recently one of my athletes started training the O-lifts with Greg Everett. This forced me to recognize that what I had learned so far in CF regarding the O-lifts was demonstrably inferior (but still an order of magnitude better than what I knew before CF, i.e. zilch). I admitted my sub-optimal teaching to my athletes and we are now working on improving our O-lifts, but not at the expense of GPP or not following a .com-like template.

Greg Glassman and CrossFit have given us all an incredible gift, for which I am truly thankful, but they have started a wildfire which cannot be easily managed or neatly compartmentalized. That does not have to be a bad thing. Another local product, eBay, was also started on a wing and a prayer - basically not even a beta product thrown out there. Subsequently, the owners started reacting to every piece of feedback they received and built a killer app. Their community base is the basis of their success and they jealously build, guard and protect it. CrossFit should do the same. Listen. Grow. Evolve.

I know Greg Glassman and I believe in him as a businessman, fitness visionary and really just a good down-to-earth guy. I have had my issues with HQ and I know this is not the kindest, gentlest organization on earth, but given what we do doesn't that make a certain amount of sense?

Now goddammit! Let's chalk to the elbows and get back to working out!

See you in the garage.

Maximus Bernard Lewin
Owner, Lead Trainer
CrossFit East Bay
info@crossfiteastbay.com
510.910.2919

Post thoughts to comments.

13th Anniversary of My 30th Birthday

November 11, 2009

13th Anniversary of Max's 30th Birthday


7:15PM

Delta-Force Hit-and-Run Dinner @ Taqueria La Familla

8PM

Salsa Dancing at Down Low

It has been a long-time goal of mine to learn to dance, and get over my phobia of same. And, according to Coach Dr. Mock, I am ready for the world.

So come amuse yourself by seeing me break out in a cold sweat and run, humiliated and sweaty, into the night. Or, possibly, dance.

Down Low:
Wednesdays | Live Salsa Bands
Beginner lessons from 8-8:45
Intermediate lessons from 8:45-9:30
$10 cover, $5 w/student ID
$4 margarita special
Map

CrossFit East Bay: CrossFit Games 2010

Apollonia May 2009, Norcal Qualifier

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We are now 9 months out from the CrossFit Games 2010. Greg Glassman has stated that the games are an opportunity for affiliates to show the strength of their programming.

Last year we decided late to enter the games; for the Affiliate Cup we gambled and lost on a dark horse strategy, which involved a lot of long grueling metcon (long time domains by CF standards). We chose this strategy because we had limited time to develop tons of power or strength; it takes quite a while to get strong, while developing work capacity can be done fairly quickly. Because of (or perhaps despite) this we finished 68th of 97 teams.

For the individual competition, Apollonia also had limited time to prepare, but thanks to Gita's brilliant 11-day preparation and her inherent athleticism and powerful work ethic, she qualified for the games in 5th place, but far ahead of the next nearest competititor. With good, hard training, she placed 34th at the games, and, notably, improved enough against the moving targets of the the Norcal Competitors that she placed higher than everyone who beat her at the Norcal Qualifier previously.

This year we know far in advance that we will participate in the competitive season, and therefore, We will tailor our programming to that end. Given the fact that CrossFit East Bay is dedicated to old-school CF principals, most of the training will be fully scalable, and we will offer a compelling fitness experience for anyone who wants to train hard and get results.

The next three months will be old-school CF GPP (generalized physical preparedness). However, our Max Effort work will be less varied than CF main for this period. The reasons for this being a good or bad idea could fill a very long article. Suffice to say this will make it easier for us to gauge what kind of progress we are making. We will also be working on short metcon, long metcon, light (bodyweight-ish) metcon and heavy metcon. We will deadlift heavy every week, either as Max Effort day or as a metcon with weights of up to 315/205. We will also do Max Effort Clean & Jerk at least 2X a month. While some suggest teaching the snatch first (because it is harder), I am choosing to work on my own snatch, including getting high level instruction, before committing to teaching it in a serious manner.

In addition to the above we will be working a lot on Overhead Squats, Muscle-Ups, HSPU and Double-Unders (because they take the longest to learn). Also expect to learn to back squat.

The training template is HERE.

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The subsequent training will be developed once we know more about the schedule and format, however, if possible we will spend significant time getting as strong as possible (think Deadlift, Squat, Press, Bench Press, Sled Drag, Tire Flip, etc.) while still gaining some capacity. Following that, I hope to have a well-designed volume overload scheme which will bring us right to the brink of despair overtraining/overreaching followed by a back-off, followed by a cycle of escalating intensity but lowered volume. In all cases, I hope to avoid the scenario of last year when we were a bit spun-down (if super-conditioned) coming up to our competitions. Some of us definitely peaked the week after the games. Recovery will be much more at the forefront this year. Training will be the new overtraining. The above may have to be repeated multiple times in micro-cycles (sectionals, regionals, games)