If you’ve been at Arena Ready for a while you’re familiar with the WOD format of Wednesday’s workout. Occasionally we do medium-longer EMOMs with the intention of a higher intensity output (think of the ones where you thought to yourself “OMG Rob I HATE YOU RIGHT NOW”) — generally those days have a very specific set number of reps and loading, and sometimes we make it even spicier by seeing if you can “hold a number throughout the entire WOD” (like a sort of expanded Tabata torture method HAHA).

In other instances we allow for a range of experiences in our athletes by giving the choice of loading, and in many ways intensity, to the person doing the workout. Another way of thinking of this is “Choose Your Own Adventure” — lighter loading and a more intentional focus on movement quality for those who seek movement in the vein of a recovery day or lighter intensity stimulus, and heavier loading for those who feel primed to take on more intensity and work. The WOD can feel very different to different people, and that’s exactly our intention.

So, check-in with yourself and take a quick inventory of how your body is feeling this week — have you trained several times over the last few days, how has your sleep, nutrition, and recovery been, what’s the climate like at work and/or home, did you travel recently, etc — and make a smart decision on how to approach this mid-week WOD so that you get the most benefit. Remember that the goal is to be able to come back tomorrow and/or for the balance of this week and continue to train productively and intelligently. Opportunities abound for intensity, speed, and other outputs in the days to follow — so when given a clear choice of how to guide your ship make sure to point it in the direction that best suits your current training/recovery/life situation.

On the other hand, if you look at this workout and think “that’s it?” or think that the Monday Tuesday program was “too easy” then I have a message for you — you don’t need harder workouts, you need to go harder. Trust me, I see all the scores (from in the gym, from remote athletes, from coaches and competitors testing the WODs for me) and NONE of the people posting the fastest times and highest scores report that the workouts are “easy.”

Know thyself, train smart, train hard, be an athlete.

WOD For 04-10-19:

7 Rounds, Start Every 3 Minutes:

5 Back Squats @ pick load

15 AbMat Sit-ups

30 Unbroken Double Unders

*Warm-up to a working weight on the back squat before starting your first round, then either climb in weight with small increases as you go OR stay at the same challenging weight across all 7 rounds.

*Unbroken DUs means if you miss at rep 29 you must start over at 0 to complete that round (or consider the WOD scaled).

Monday featured heavy powers from the floor and an upper pulling focus, so Tuesday’s menu is filled with a lighter, longer met-con and an upper pushing focus. Enjoy!

WOD For 04-09-19:

Strict Press:

5-4-3-2-1-1

*Quickly build to two attempts at a heavy single in 10 minutes

then-

Tabata (19 Total Minutes):

Row, Ski, or Assault Bike For Calories

Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft

KB Swings @ 53/35 lbs

Push-ups

*Tabata = 8 Rounds of 0:20 Work / 0:10 Rest

*Complete all 8 Rounds of a Movement Before Moving on To The Next Movement (i.e. do not alternate)

*Rest 1 Minute Between Movements

*Score = Your Lowest Rep Round for Each of the 4 Movements

Reminder that our free April 2019 "On-Boarding Series" for newcomers starts this Saturday (April 13th) with the Introduction to CrossFit class at 12:00pm.  The second class of the required two-part series, Beginner's CrossFit, will be held the following Saturday (April 20th).  There are only a handful of membership spaces that will be available before we close the membership again for 3 months, so if anyone you know has been wanting to join as a newcomer make sure to spread the word!

For more details on how & why we on-board newcomers in small groups at carefully chosen intervals throughout the year click here to read a previous On-Boarding" post which details a bit of the background on our philosophy.  To lazy to read it?  OK then, here's the basic scoop: we do what we do to maintain quality, an ideal coach-to-athlete ratio in every class, and a caring community composed of like-minded people who consider fitness a sustainable, long-term lifestyle.  

So tell your friends and family to sign-up for this Saturday and get started at Arena Ready (click here for more details and to reserve an On-Boarding spot)!

WOD For 04-08-19:

Alternating EMOM For 5 Rounds (10 Minutes):

1) 3 Power Cleans: climbing

2) Strict Pull-up Complex: 1 Scap Pull-up + 1 Lat Activation + 1 “One-Half’ Strict Pull-up + 1 Strict Pull-up

*For the pull-up complex add 1 rep every round if possible: 1+1+1+1, 2+2+2+2, 3+3+3+3, etc...

-then-

AMRAP 7 Minutes:

5 Power Cleans @ 205/145 lbs

7 Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups

9 Box Jumps @ 30/24 in

-then-

Tabata:

Hollow Rocks

Today we will score this by TOTAL reps

Is that an appropriate thing to write in the headline? Oh well, it’s true and you’ll know what I mean when you wake up on Sunday morning.

Happy weekend, friends!

WOD For 04-06-19:

With a Partner, 2 Rounds For Time:

1000m Row

30 Toes-to-Bar

30 Single Dumbbell “Curtis P” @ 50/35 lbs (alternate sides)

30 Deadlifts @ 225/155 lbs

30 Burpees Over The Rower

*Only one person working at a time, switch whenever you like

*ONE “Single DB Curtis P” rep is:

Hang Power Clean

Forward Lunge Right

Forward Lunge Left

Push Press

(switch hands then repeat for the next rep)

Happy Friday and welcome back, intensity (my old friend)…

WOD For 04-05-19:

4 Rounds of 4:00 Work / 2:00 Rest For MAX REPS:

60 Double Unders

30 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft

15 Hand Release Push-ups

MAX REPS Hang Power Cleans @ 165/115 lbs

*Start at the top with double unders in every round

*Score is the total number of hang power clean reps at the end of 4 rounds

*Remember that for every crappy hand release push-up you do you get closer and closer to looking like Donald Trump Jr. doing “Murph” on Instagram

Thursday's "for completion & quality" WOD reminds me of an old post post…  

As we (the coaches) watch most athletes actually do the two exercises for quality and with position, technique, and balance in mind we think to ourselves "yup, that's gonna transfer over eventually to bigger numbers or bigger sets if they just keep on doing that."  By contrast, the few who load up, go through the motions without much intent or mindfulness, and struggle-bus through the exercises will likely spend time re-enforcing existing bad habits (sadly).  

Of course there's a time and place to go fast & hard and to push the limits.  But when we're tying to develop movement patterns and fix or improve technique, that has to be done at sub-maximal loads… and with un-timed sets or progressions.  Through practice.

Number of times AI says the word "practice" in this video... twenty-five.

John Welbourn once told me, "when the bullets start flying EVERYONE drops to their level of training."  

Another way of saying this is "when the clock starts running or the weights get heavy, the body gets tired, and the fight or flight response kicks in, every athlete starts moving the way they always move... in training... in warm-ups... in PRACTICE... in everyday life."  No one ever starts "rising to the occasion" and miraculously looking perfect, as if all they ever needed to move well was simply the pressure of intensity and/or heavier loads.

In tens of thousands of hours of coaching I can tell you that this is one of the truest concepts of training.  We see it all the time, day after day.  The athlete who moves well in warm-ups, and has put the work in on doing just that, generally moves well in workouts, in strength sessions, and in competition (even if that "competition" is simply life).  The lifter who looks sharp and precise with the empty bar usually looks pretty damn good with heavy loads.  Alternatively, the guy or gal who consistently goes through the motions and lazily moves their body until things get heavy or hard usually has a tough time holding position when things become just that... heavy or hard.  Sometimes said athlete thinks, "well the people who look good in warm-ups and with low weights are just lucky... they're born that way and they're just really flexible/mobile/short/tall/etc."  In some cases there can be truth in that statement, but in most I would argue that those people have worked really damn hard to be able to put their bodies in the right positions.  But since fixing movement with little or no load isn't glamorous, and can be crushing to the athlete's ego and patience, most who aren't good at it chalk it up to "I'm just not built that way, and I need some more weight to make it look and feel better."  Not true.  You "need some more weight" to make it look passable... until of course the weight is heavy enough, or the workout hard enough, that passable can no longer complete the task.  Then he/she usually enters one of two territories - Miss-ville (the land of a thousand misses) OR Snap City (sometimes referred to as Sketch City or "holy crap I hope no one was watching that").  Very strong athletes who are also very limited in their mobility can likely identify with that situation (although they're not the only ones in this boat) - it feels hard with little to no weight, then it feels fine with moderate loading, then it just gets frustratingly impossible at heavier loads which are still well under his/her perceived maximum potential. 

If any of your goals includes snatching better/heavier, getting muscle-ups, developing athleticism, increasing balance/strength/coordination/agility/speed/flexibility/power, or just generally heightening your awareness of how your body moves though space and how it can also move external objects… then I would recommend using Thursday’s WOD as a tool for mindful practice. The practice of all of those things.

Because, yeah, we talkin’ ‘bout practice.

WOD For 04-04-19:

For Completion and Quality (NOT For Time):

10-8-6-4-2

Power Snatches

5-4-3-2-1

Ring Muscle-ups

*Alternate between movements (10/5-8/4-6/3-etc...) but rest as needed between movements and sets

*Climb in load as your technique allows on the Power Snatches (touch-and-go not required)

*Scale mindfully & intelligently for the MU as needed to work on progressing skill level and/or positional strength required for the next step (don't just "go through the motions") -- if MU are "your jam" then do them unbroken and with perfect technique

All of my clients, and I believe nearly all people, would love to build a beautifully balanced life, to eat perfectly Paleo meals and be free from cravings for salt, sugar or alcohol.  They'd like to sleep eight or more hours per night and wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.  They'd like to work out consistently except for their perfectly coordinated rest days, with always flawless technique.  There would be no need for stress management, because each day would represent an oasis of fresh, colorful fruit and veggies, plenty of clear, cold water, clear mind, full heart, and joyous exercise.  Chris Kresser defines these four elements: nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management, as the "four pillars of health," and I tend to agree with him.

Many of my clients have limited ability to focus on these four pillars because they have created a world in which they feel like they are fighting for survival - trying to make ever more money to support lifestyles ever more extravagant in cities which are ever more expensive.  Fear of not having enough - money, time, accolades - drives us to enter survival mode. If you feel like you are fighting for survival, eating nutritious food, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly can't be among your top priorities.  In survival mode, all you care about is living to fight another day.

When we exist in survival mode, our bodies respond with cortisol and adrenaline, potentially fueled by caffeine.  We are constantly ready to fight - no time for sleep  - we stay up late and wake up early.  We go from email to phone call to meeting to flight to traffic to bills.  No time for nutritious meals - we forget to eat until we're starving, and then we eat whatever quick and easy calorie bomb will get us through. No time for exercise - we sit in a screen-induced trance, forgetting to even move for hours on end, slouching further into our chairs, and sagging into our standing desks, wondering why our atrophying bodies hurt everywhere.  No time for stress management - we can't even breathe, much less breathe deeply, and we can't imagine finding time to go outside or play with dogs and children with no agenda.  Every single moment feels urgent, critical, and time-sensitive.

If you are existing in survival mode, there are two things to evaluate: what do I really need/want, and am I doing what I need to be doing/can do to get there?  Through evaluating your priorities, you can sift through the things that are meaningful - the things that bring you joy or fulfillment, and/or the things that are necessary to ensure the survival of your family - and make choices to ensure that the things taking your time or money, are also bringing you joy or fulfillment, and contributing to your survival.

Once we've fixed the foundation, and are no longer feeling threatened, we can then focus more effectively on building health. These four critical elements enable us to thrive, and the absence of any or all of these components will lead to feeling gross in the short-term, and being sick in the long term.

The foundation relates to basic survival.
The pillars relate to optimal health.
Then we can focus on the future.

Too many people confuse the roof and the foundation.  You can't fight for the roof in survival mode as though your life depends on it, without crumbling in the pillars.  You can't realistically talk about the luxury of fulfillment or achieving lofty goals if you're unsure whether you will actually live to see the day that you experience them.

Your life plan should absolutely ensure your foundation is solid - that you have enough money to keep a roof over your head, food on your table, and time to enjoy the people you love. If you're truly stressed because of flaws in your foundation, pay close attention to that - manage your income, your lifestyle, and your expectations so they're in sync.

If you've established that you're striving for goals that represent luxuries versus necessities,slow down, stop stressing, and focus on building the pillars. Learn about nutrition - food quality and quantity, meal prep and cooking.  Get enough sleep - turn off the lights, put down the phone.  Exercise regularly - find a routine you like and stick to it consistently.  Manage stress, but only to recognize when it's overtaking you, and decide whether it's your foundation that's stressing you, or your roof.  If it's the roof, take a step back, do more deep breathing, and realize that you're only one person, and Rome wasn't built in a day.

-Sarah

WOD For 04-03-19:

Back Squat:

2-4-8-4-2

*Work up fairly quickly to a heavy-ish set of 2, then climb in weight on the sets of 4 and 8. 

*When going back down the ladder to 4 and 2 see if you're able to use a slightly heavier load than the previous 4 and 2. 

-then-

“Kim’s Burpee Box Over Knockout v2”

EMOM Until You Cannot:

10 Burpee Box Jump Overs @ 24/20 in

*Facing the box is NOT required.

*Both feet must touch the top of the box but full extension while on top is not required.

(Compare to 04-19-16 and 04-22-15… v2 = longer time cap LMAO)

Did you REALLY think we would make you do 150 thrusters @ 135/95, 150 C2B pull-ups, and 150 row calories in the same workout? Solo?!

Maybe Coach Jillian would have, who knows. She doesn’t believe in April Fool’s jokes.

All I know is please DON’T do the KB Swings she was teaching in yesterday’s video if you’d like to keep your back from, well…

WOD For 04-02-19:

4 Rounds, Go Every 5 Minutes:

30/25 Calorie Row

21 KB Swings @ 53/35 lbs

12 Pull-ups

Each round is for time.

(Workout inspired by CrossFit Linchpin)

-then-

Weighted Plank Hold:

3 x 0:45 (Rest 1:15 Between Efforts)

Monday classes are in for a HUGE treat as we welcome a very special guest coach at AR…

We hope you all had a wonderful, sun-filled SF weekend!

WOD For 04-01-19:

“The Arena Ready 19.6”

For Time:

50-40-30-20-10

Thrusters @ 135/95 lbs

Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups

Row Calories

Oh how we’ve missed you, Saturday Sweat Sessions With Friends… this one in particular is going to require some teamwork, communication, and a solid game plan thanks to the “creativity” allowed in completing the movements and reps.

Happy weekend, friends.

WOD For 03-30-19:

In Teams of THREE For Time:

350 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft

250 Calorie Row (Co-ed Teams = 225 Cal / FFF Teams = 200 Cal)

150 Burpee Box Jumps @ 24/20 in (you must FACE the box, step-ups ARE allowed)

*Teams can complete the movements and reps in any order or combination.

*2 athletes may be working at the same time on different stations but 1 athlete MUST always be "resting" (AKA waiting to switch).

*Game plan how your team will split the work into pre-set rounds & reps with planned transitions.  

*Time is called when all reps for all three movements are complete (OR score by total reps at the 30 minute cap if not complete).

It’s been several days now since 19.5 closed things off… does anyone miss the Open yet?! Here are Jenny’s amazing shots of Open 19.5 at Arena Ready — click here for the gallery.

WOD For 03-29-19:

AMRAP 5 Minutes:

10 Handstand Push-ups

20 Russian KB Swings @ 70/53 lbs

… REST 5 MINUTES, THEN…

AMRAP 10 Minutes:

10 Box Jump Overs @ 24/20 in

10 Single Dumbbell Hang Clean-to-Overhead @ 50/35 lbs (switch sides after 5 reps)

10 Ring Dips

Looking ahead for that weekend on a Thursday like…

I’m not sure why but this picture of Zach reminds of…

Probably because Chad said something about NKOTB, and he and I are both old enough to remember these sweet dance moves.

WOD For 03-28-19:

Alternating EMOM For 4 Rounds (8 Minutes):

1) 3 Power Cleans

2) 3 Scap Pull-ups + 1 Max L-Sit

*Climb in load on the barbell to a weight heavier than to be used in Part 2 below

*The L-Sit is performed immediately following the scap pull-ups (without dropping to re-set the grip) and should be scaled to a Chair (or "Tuck") Sit if you cannot hold the L position for at least 15 seconds

-then-

7 Rounds For Time:

5 Strict Pull-ups

7 Power Cleans 185/135 lbs

9 Pistols (alternate)