Orange Coast CrossFit hits 2 years old today. We officially launched our first WoD in this very warehouse on March 1st, 2009. From my perch its been an incredible journey. Having met some awesome people doing amazing things in this little box. The box itself has seen some Gnarly workouts thrown down over the years. The amount of sweat, and tears shed in here could fill a swimming pool. I am very excited to see what the next two years bring. Thank you all past and present who have made this gym the best place to train in the OC.

Announcements:

The dunk is on Friday, March 11th. My mistake for mixing up the dates on yesterdays blog. There is a sign in sheet on the locker next to the bathroom. Pencil in your name to reserve your spot.

The Paleo Potluck will be that evening. More on that soon.

New photos are up.

Workout of the Day

“Kelly”

Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

Posted in Main Posts | 7 Comments »

Kenny with a 240# Snatch and First place in WoD 3.

The Boys looking a bit chilly!

Matt Banwart aka STUD! Showing a pictue perfect box jump.

Mike Kos KILLING MENS INTERMEDIATE! Only a Double Under mishap on the final wod cost him 1st place.

Kenny 2nd Place overall. On his right are Gabe Subry:NLI winner, and Ronnie Teasdale: OC ThrowDown winner.

The boys are back from the SouthWest ThrowDown in El Paso, Texas. They drove 12 hours across the country and dominated at an unfamiliar 4,ooo ft elevation. Little sleep, low oxygen, foreign turf and these guys rocked it!!! Mike Kosareff placed 2nd in Mens Intermediate!!!  GET SOME! Matt Banwart took home 10th place in Mens Elite!!! YOU KIDDING ME!!?? Last but certainly not least, Kenneth Leverich grabs 2nd place overall in Mens Elite!! CAN YOU SAY PRODIGY??!! I AM SO PROUD OF OUR GUYS!!! BOOOOOOOM! Check out the final results here. These guys truly represent what Orange Coast CrossFit is all about. Lets hear it for our boys in the comment section today!! Can we hit 20 comments today?! Bring it!!

Announcements:

This Friday from 4 pm to 7:15pm the dunk tank will be here. That concludes our Paleo Challange!! Today is our benchmark day and your workout will be measured against your workout from 6 weeks ago to see how your transformation has gone.

Workout of the Day

Paleo Challenge Workout (Choose the same category that you did 6 weeks ago and repeat.)

Men

Elite: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Front Squats 135#, KB swing Red, Pullups

Intermediate 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Front Squats 105#, KB swing Blue, Pullups

Novice 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Front Squats 75# KB swing yellow, pullups jumping

Women

Elite: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Front Squats 85#, KB swing yellow, pullups

Int 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Front Squats 65#, KB swing green, pullups blue band

Novice 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Front Squats 45#, KB swing white, jumping pullups

Posted in Main Posts | 20 Comments »

Sean getting after “The Chief”

This weekend the Southwest Throwdown is going down in El Paso, Texas. Matt, Kenny, and Kos are driving out there as we speak to compete in this huge CrossFit comp. I know the boys are going to represent OCCF to the fullest and show those Texas boys how we train out in the OC. Lets show em some support in the comments. Good luck guys.

The 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games are coming!! Last years Games was epic! If you were at last years event you know how fun it was. Its a chance to go and watch the 100 Fittest Men and Women in the world annihilate the stuff that you guys do every day. CrossFit workouts! You will leave the weekend more inspired than ever to train hard and eat clean. Tickets are now available for pre sale. Click here to save a bundle over buying them at the door. Check out a highlight video of last years games here.

Workout of the Day

A. Take 10 minutes and build to a 3RM Press

B.Three rounds for time of:

20 Push Press (95/65)
20 Box jump (24/20)
20 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (95/65)

then…

75 Double Unders

Posted in Main Posts | 7 Comments »

The Double Under is not a difficult movement. It is simply a move in which the rope makes two passes per jump instead of just one.Yet the movement stymies many of our members too the point that they avoid trying them altogether. As long as one is able to complete two single unders in a row, there is no reason that a double under cannot happen. Lets take a look at what makes a successful Double Under.

There are three things to keep in mind when doing Double Unders.

1. Land lightly on the BALLS of your feet. Light quick feet are critical to effective jumps. You dont want to have heavy feet because you will be slow and use alot more energy.

2. Focus your eyes on one thing. I like to choose a mark on the floor and fix my eyes on that. If you start looking all around you will lose focus and miss reps.

3. Its all in the wrists. Once again ITS ALL IN THE WRISTS. The rope needs to be turned fast to get it around you twice. In order to do that you need to spin it fast with your wrists. Not your arms. The rotation of the wrists is much smaller and quicker than the arms.

4. Keep your elbows tucked into your sides. Do not let them come away from your side. If they do you will effectively shorten the length of your rope and it will end up hitting your feet.

Workout of the Day

Hopper Deck

Posted in Main Posts | 3 Comments »

Annoucements~

Remember the Battle of the Ages?!?  Well we’ve got another event coming at ya that promises to be just as great. Stay tuned for more details.

Paleo Challenge ~ Okay so the general consensus is to move the dunk to Friday the 11th since we will be having the party that night.  Here’s the deal… if you can’t dunk on Friday or if you simply don’t want to wait that long you are free to dunk Monday – Thursday at Fitness Wave in Irvine.  Once you complete your second dunk, I will need you to email me your percentages from both dunks – kiki@orangecoastcrossfit.com.  Also please contact me if you will not be able to make class on Friday and we will arrange for you to do it on Thursday.

WoD

A. Seven rounds for time of:
10 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball
10 Pull-ups

Rest as needed, then…

B. “Annie”

50-40-30-20-10

Double Unders

Situps

Posted in Main Posts | Comments Off

Some of the gals post Box Battle giving off that post workout “glow”. After 100 ring dips, box jumps, burpees, kettlebell swings, wallballs, pullups, they still look good!

Yesterday was great!  The energy, camaraderie, and output each of you gave made it such a fun environment to be in!  As a coach, it is hard at times to be super enthusiastic when people are going half ass.  Don’t get me wrong we all have drag ass half ass days, but it is so awesome when everyone is having a great time working their tails off.  It really makes our box come alive!

When doing your workouts, it is really important to keep track of you rounds, reps, and weight.  Today, I worked out with the noon class and experienced this first hand.  I was doing my reps of 3/6/9 but failed to pay close attention to my rounds, when Justin called time, I thought, “Crap…How many rounds was that?!”  Luckily I had Olga to gauge off of and I asked her how many rounds she did.  This provided me with a pretty accurate idea of my completed rounds.  Problem is, I’m not always going to have Olga there to help me figure it out.

We have all lost count of our rounds and reps but let’s make sure we do our best to be on top of our game.  This means making sure you understand the workout and know how many rounds, reps, and at what weight are expected of you.  If Bret is working his booty off for every single rep, it is not fair if someone else is doing half reps, right?!  With that said, if you do need to modify the WoD because you are new or have an injury, come talk to us and we will work out a modification for you.  That way we are all on the same page.

Stick with the program and you will grow leaps and bounds in many ways, including character.  I will say it again and again, what we do is not easy and we do not expect you to waltz in, go straight to RX and crush it.  We’ve all been a newbie and have all had to climb that latter to RX.

We really care about all of our members and want you to be successful here at OCCF.  Feel free to come chat with us if you have a questions or concern.

WoD

6 sets of:

:30 Thruster (95/65 rx) (75/55 int) (55/35 novice)

:30 Box Jump

:30 KBS (Blue/green rx) (yellow/white int) (green/white novice)

:30 Burpees

Rest 3:00 bw sets. FULL THROTTLE ON EACH SET!! Keep equipment close by so transition time is minimal.  Score is total reps. Coach keeps time and yells out the transitions.

Posted in Main Posts | 4 Comments »

Box Battle 3!!  It was a great morning with great people!  Thanks to all the Box Battle competitors, especially those who made the drive from CFSC and NLP to share some sweat with us.

Saturday’s WoD was a big success and we had a lot of fun doing it.  There were a few of our members who were pretty nervous about it as it was their first form of competition.  But really, it was just another day at the box because every time you step inside, you are competing…either against yourself or another OCCF member.  You have someone you chase or there is someone who is constantly on your heels pushing you further.  It was great to see such a mix of members…some of our greenest members worked hard right along side the vets.  Big shout out to Brian who finished his Elements on Thursday night and signed up for the battle as his first ever group CF WoD.  Thanks again to all who came out…we look forward to the next event!

Annoucements~

Congrats to Matt Banwart for completing 2,517 burpees in 8 hours…what the ?%&!  Matt you are crazy and that’s just one of the many reasons why we love you!  We’re happy to have you at OCCF!

Beginning March 1st we will be opening up another noon class on Tuesdays!  (M/T/W/F @ noon)  So to our trusty nooners you can now look forward to another party every Tuesday!

Paleo peeps – Chris K and Carson are being kind enough to open their home and well, they’re hoping for a party with both paleo food and non-paleo drinks…So here is what we’re proposing.  Would you mind if we wodded and dunked on Friday the 11th and had the Paleo Party that night??  Please post your thoughts or shoot me an email.

Pics are up from Saturday

WoD

A. Power clean 5-5-5 (no drops, touch and go)

B. “The Chief”

5 Rounds

3 min AMRAP:
3 Power Cleans (135/95)
6 pushups
9 squats
Followed by 1 min rest

Posted in Main Posts | 4 Comments »

Our very own Rich Bordner is the Coach for the Capo Valley High School Wrestling team. He sent in the following testimony to us regarding his teams success using CrossFit as their conditioning program.

“This fall and winter, we utilized crossfit style programming for our strength and conditioning, and it paid off.  Last year we were a bit lacking in the strength department.  Wrestling is a sport that demands raw physicality and athletic ability across broad domains (not really across broad time domains…matches last anywhere from 6 to 8 and a half minutes) of fitness, and Crossfit really helped us hit many of those domains in a quick amount of time. This year, while we still have a ways to go, we really took a big jump in that area, mostly due to Crossfit.  We’re gonna hit the weights hard again in the spring and summer, and my bet is that we’re going to make even bigger gains, for the program will be refined and retooled (kinda ran chaotic in the fall, being the first time we ran that type of program.  Kinda hard to move 50 guys through a crossfit wod in a small weightroom in 45 minutes!).  Mostly, I’m looking forward to the mental toughness benefit that the guys will reap from spending a spring and summer doing CF wods.”

Announcements

Tomorrow is the Box Battle. Please DO NOT BE SCARED! It will be a workout like any other we do on a daily basis. The only difference is there will be members from two other CF boxes attending. If you have not yet signed up, do so now. The workout starts at 9am and we should be all wrapped up by 10:30. The link can be found here.

Workout of the Day

“Good Night”

A. At the top of every minute do 5 burpees (105/75#) with the remaining time perform as many Power Snatch as you can. Time stops when you get to 100 Power Snatches.

Rest 5 minutes

B. At the top of every minute do 5 Push Presses (105/65#) with the remaining time perform as many double unders as you can. Time stops when you get to 300 double unders.

(athlete is responsible for their own rest times. Post to white board total time minus the rest.)

Posted in Main Posts | 1 Comment »

We’re glad to have Tim Stickler as part of our OCCF Family.  This photo is from his race last Saturday-  as he put it, “crossfitness applied.”  He also added,  ”I’m feeling so much stronger on the water, especially my core/lower back.” It’s great to hear about the positive affects CrossFit is having on the various hobbies you have outside the box.  If you’ve got a great shot of “crossfitness” being applied outside the box, email it to us and we’ll get it up on the blog.

KettleBell Swings are found often in CrossFit.  KettleBell swings are like kipping pull-ups, everyone’s differs slightly but there are a few standards that are necessary for a successful KB Swing.   Weight in the heels, lumbar curve engaged/tight core, and hip drive with  full extension/arms overhead are all important when swinging the KB.  That full extension of the hips and arms is very important.  Here is a condensed version of an article from the CrossFit Journal explaining why we need to go over head:

“On first being introduced to the kettlebell swing our immediate response was, “Why not go overhead?” Generally, we endeavor, somewhat reflexively, to lengthen the line of travel of any movement. Why?There are two reasons. The first is somewhat intuitive. We don’t do half rep pull-ups, we don’t do half rep squats, and we don’t do half rep push-ups. If there is a natural range of motion to any movement we like to complete it. To do otherwise seems unnatural. We would argue that partial reps are neurologically incomplete. The second reason deals with some fundamentals of physics and exercise physiology.

From physics we know that the higher we lift something, and the more it weighs, the more “work” we are performing. Work is in fact equal to the weight lifted multiplied by the height we lift the object. Work performed divided by the time to completion is equal to the average “power” expressed in the effort. Power is exactly identical to the exercise physiologist’s “intensity”. Intensity, more than any other measurable factor, correlates to physiological response. So more work in less time, or more weight moved farther in less time, is largely a measure of an exercise’s potency.

When we swing the kettlebell to overhead, the American swing, we nearly double the range of motion compared to the Russian swing and thereby double the work done each stroke. For any given time period, the power would be equivalent only if the Russian swing rate was twice the American swing rate.”

Announcements~

Box Battle this Saturday @ 9am.  You must register through mindbody no later than Friday.  Open to ALL levels…come have some fun this Saturday!

Workout of the Day

Hopper Deck

Posted in Main Posts | 2 Comments »

Some of the 2011 OCCF Competition Team.

Remember this Saturday we have the Box Battle at 9am. We were going to have it at the beach but it is supposed to rain this weekend so we moved it inside to the OCCF box. CrossFit South County and CrossFit NLP will be coming up to train with us. Its open to EVERY ONE of our members but, just like class, you must sign up in advance to reserve a spot. The workout will be like any of our weekly WoDs only with more energy and fun bc of the new faces around. Sign up here to reserve your spot.

Workout of the Day

5 RFT

20 Walking Overhead Lunges (10 ea leg) (135/85)

1 Suicide sprint (four cones placed about 10m apart)

20 KB Swings (red/yellow)

Rest :90 bw rounds

Posted in Main Posts | 4 Comments »