Thursday/Motor Unit Recruitment

Blurry photo above of Adil doing the workout:

8 Rounds of:
10 Kettlebell swings (24kg)
10 lunges (holding the Kettlebell at chest)
11 clapping pushups

The clapping pushups seemed to be the hardest part of the workout which was understandable. Some people were curious to know why we were doing clapping pushups versus regular pushups recently. Its because I am experimenting with you guys! :)

Training with movements that use high contraction speeds (explosive movements) recruit more of the motor units of your muscle to contract. A motor unit consists of a nerve cell and the muscle fibers it innervates. Muscles generate force through motor unit recruitment (and frequency of firing which is also dependent on recruitment). So clapping pushups are a faster way to get your upper body/chest muscles stronger. Also why we do box jumps for our legs.
Haley

Trixie #2

Another pic of gym dog Trixie (Natalie's cute bulldog). We had an earlier picture of her on October 8th post.

Yesterday's strength component of the workout was 4 sets of single Deadlifts at 95%-105% of max. It was awesome to see lots of people increasing their heavy strength. (Lloyd, Eric, Natalie, Simona, Chris to name some of evening crew who had an average of 30 lbs DL increase).

January Challenge

The January Challenge this month was 2 minutes max reps of box jumps. So far Narayan is the leader! However he did get some battle wounds on the last rep:

why we workout

Hi everyone,
Here is a picture Ryan just sent of one of his buddies all loaded up with gear. It made me think of the best reason to workout, go to the gym, eat right, etc. Our bodies are tools and should be kept in good functional shape. You should be ready to handle any physical situation that comes your way. So next time I throw a 45# vest on you while you are doing burpees, you can thank Ryan :)

Workout for Friday December 31st

Workout for Friday December 31st

After a good warmup run or row:

Back Squat 3-3-3-3-3

(so 5 rounds of 3 reps of a heavy back squat)

OR

400 walking lunges

Workout for Thursday December 30th

Workout for Thursday December 30th

Warm up:
Row or run 1500m
Stretch

Using a 45# barbell with enough weight on it to make each round challenging. (start with 95#men/65#women and go up/down from there). Try to complete each round in 2 minutes. Rest is the remainder of the two minutes.

10 rounds of:

6x Dead-Lift

6x Bent rows

6x Hanging power Cleans

6x Front Squats

6x Push Presses

then Core/Abs:

3 x (25 situps/25 crunches/ 25 flutterkicks)

The pic above is from the CrossFit main site. That puppy is so cute I had to repost. If anyone has any questions email me at haley@defiancecrossfit.com

Haley

Workout for Wednesday December 29th

Workout for Wednesday December 29th

Warm up: Run 15 minutes or more
then:

Leg Blasters!

 3 Rounds of:

20 squats

20 lunges

20 jumping lunges

20 jump squats

60 seconds rest in between rounds

Then ABS/Core:

4 Rounds of:

20 situps

20 crunches

20 flutterkicks

20 medball twists

Planks: 20 sec left/20 center/20 right

Workout for Tuesday December 28th

Workout for Tuesday December 28th

Run 1600m
50 Sit-ups
50 Back Extensions
Run 800m
25 Sit-ups
25 Back Extensions
Run 400m
15 Sit-ups
15 Back Extensions

Post time to comments

Workout for Monday December 27th

Workout for Monday December 27th:

100 Dumbell Thrusters (with 2 burpees on the minute)

- Try 2 45# Dumbells to start
- These should be hard and challenging!
- A Thruster in case you forgot is a full squat (holding the dumbells at your shoulders) to a full press overhead. See video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNTW7B09VJg
- Post time and thoughts to "Comments"

Workout for Sunday, Dec. 26th

Workout for Sunday, Dec. 26th:

Three rounds for time of:

Run 400 meters

21 Kettlebell swings at 24lbs. (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)

12 Pull-ups

Post times to 'Comments'.

If you don't have a kettlebell or Dumbell use something heavy like a rock in a sack/bag. If this doesn't work, substitute situps (full good ones) for the KB swings and substitute Push ups for the pullups. 

Merry Christmas!

Hi Everyone!
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays from Defiance CrossFit!
Here is an update to what is happening:
1. The gym is closed Dec. 27 through 31st to get the roof leak fixed.

2. Haley is in Boulder, Colorado until the 1st visiting family and getting some good trail runs at altitude. She is running a 5k on January 2nd if anyone wants to join her:
http://www.brazenracing.com/newyearrun.html

3. Ryan is doing well and says hello to everyone. He is working out about twice a day and doing some other stuff :)

Photos from Bend!

Hi Guys, Here are some photos from the Cyclocross Nationals race up in Bend Oregon last week. The course got muddy but it was perfect for CX racing! My best finish was 6th in the Singlespeed race. Next year is in Wisconsin in January. Brrr!

Above: a photo of the course. There were some big mud sections.

Above: Haley on the first lap looking clean.

One of the run ups.

Cyclocross this weekend

This coming weekend is the Bay Area Super Prestige Series race #5
http://www.bayareacx.com/page/show/220033-race-5-cccp-cyclocross-coyote-point-san-mateo

Hopefully we can get Ethan and Josh to race ;-) Haley will be racing the Singlespeed division before heading up to Bend OR on the 6th for Cyclocross Nationals.

Here is a pic from last week. No its not Haley! ha ha!

Ryans workout

Ryan's workout yesterday consisted of rounds of a 3 Kettlebell drag, burpees, 30 meter target shoot. Maybe we should try that at the gym tomorrow! ha ha!

CX Districts

I raced the CA/NV Cyclocross District championships on Saturday in Reno. 5th place in the Women's A's.

I am in the green Webcor outfit. On my left is eventual winner Katerina Nash who rides for the Luna Chix team. 

I am in the far left of the photo with the blue down jacket on. Checking out that Bear Jersey! (Winners of CA District championships get a cool bear jersey). Someday....

November 17

Todays workout:
4 rounds
25 m walking lunge with 45# overhead
30 box jumps
20 wall ball
10 handstand pushups

Crazy 88's

Good Saturday workout this morning!
Arun's test workout was an awesome fully body workout:

"Crazy 88's"
4 rounds:
22 Kettlebell swings (16kg)
22 Thrusters (75#)
22 Burpees
22 Wallballs (20kg)

Saturday Workout 11/13 9am

There will be a Saturday workout tomorrow at the gym (11/13) at 9am. We will be testing a new workout: Crazy 88's! email haley@defiancecrossfit.com if you have questions.
See you all 9am!

"Kelly"

Today's workout is:
"Kelly"
5 rounds of:
400m run
30 box jumps
30 wall ball shots

We did this almost exactly a month ago. I have your scores recorded if you were here that day so come beat your time!
Best time so far: 21:09 (Jon F.)

Fran-off

What do you guys think about doing this?
http://franoff.blogspot.com/

November 13
Walnut Creek, CA

Rules
Fran:
21-15-9
- Thrusters (95 lbs for men and 65 pounds for women) and pull ups.
- Pull ups are chin over bar- Teams must do pull ups on same bar.
- There are no minimum or maximum required reps per team member during Fran. One team member can choose to do the whole thing.
Entry fee is $55

I think we could do it and maybe win! Or for sure get a good workout
Haley

The 4 P.M. was hard core today!

Well Sunday's Tough Mudder was a lot of fun. We saw the entire crew (Taaniel, Christofer, Chris, Eliza and others) up there having a great time. Haley was the first female finisher on Sunday, and around 12th overall. We are looking forward to finding more fun events to compete in.

Today we hit it hard at 4 pm. Nick nailed a 48 inch seated box jump! Everyone was smoking 135# barbell step-ups, and we all did 3 sets of 30 meter jeep pushes.

Here is Arun "The Operator" on his second 30 meter effort, looking strong as hell!

Further, Faster, Harder

Trixie!

Natalie brought her new puppy Trixie to the gym today! She is a cute bulldog and an awesome gym dog.

Tomorrow and Sunday is the Tough Mudder race up in Bear Valley. Right now there looks like there is a chance of snow for the race! That should make things a lot more interesting.

October 7, 2010

Todays workout:
Run 800 meters
25 x Floor presses @ 185# (bench press on the floor)
15 x Horizontal Ring Rows
Run 400 meters
max reps Plyo pushups (subtract 5 seconds from total time for each plyo pushup)
Run 400 meters
15 x Horizontal Ring Rows
25 x Floor presses
Run 800 meters

Plyo pushup example:

Race updates

This last Saturday Narayan, Megan, and John Arledge's wife all raced in the Rock and Roll half marathon in San Jose. I heard it was a well orginized and fun.
Last Saturday Stephanie raced her first triathlon! More pictures to follow.

Team pic

Photo of the Team Pursuit. Haley is in the middle in this picture.