Level 4 CrossFit

The CrossFit Gene

2009-04-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

David Kuhl made sure his nephew got the CrossFit Bug when he came for a visit last week.

Spring LEANing Challenge update

2009-04-25T17:45:00.001-07:00

Over 70 of us gathered today to hear Dave talk about nutrition and eating similar to hunter/gatherer types. Thanks everyone for coming out. Right now we have 52 people that have signed up or will be signing up for the Challenge. This looks to be a nice pile of cash for one motivated person!

Fran's "How I lost 20 Pounds" article receives an update

2009-04-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

Fran gives her excellent article about how she lost 20 pounds a 9th year update.

Today in 2009, I believe that eating right requires answering the question "what" and not "how much." Unless I eat starch and sugar; then, "how much" definitely matters.

Read the full article here.

Spring LEANing Challenge starting MAY 1, 2009

2009-04-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

Spring Leaning Challenge

May 1, 2009 through June 19, 2009 (only 7 weeks!)

Rules of the challenge:

Eating: Paleo or Paleo with Zone
Cost: $30.00 to be put into a kitty
3 'Before' pictures taken: front view, side view and back view. Men are in shorts and Women are in shorts and sports bra/bikini top
Each Sunday your food log is emailed to the group that is participating
3 'After' pictures are taken on June 20, 2009 (or within the next 2 days)
CF Seattle trainers pick the top 5 people whos body composition changed the most
Spring Leaning participants vote on the top 5 to determine the Winner and Runner-up
Winner wins entire kitty plus 1 month of unlimited classes at CF Seattle
Runner-up wins 1 month of unlimited classes at CF Seattle

TO SIGN UP: Attend Lecture on April 25th (details below) or email info@crossfitseattle.com and Nancy will arrange for your picture to be taken and entry fee collected.

When Robb Wolf and Nicki Violetti came up for the Nutrition Certification in March, they talked about having a body composition challenge with their clients at CrossFit NorCal. The results in just 7 weeks were dramatic. Robb for years had resisted doing before and after pictures but this is what motivated people the most. The challenge is not based on pounds lost, but on body composition change.

Paleo Diet
In a nut shell, Paleo eating consists of eating meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds. No grains are allowed. No processed food. We have seen incredible results in some of our clients who just cut gluten from their diet with no other changes. With these simple instructions, anyone can eat this way. There are no portion controls.

For even better results, add the Zone blocks (portion controls) to Paleo eating.

Challenge Lecture/Meeting: Saturday April 25 at 12:00 noon
We will be meeting for an hour on Saturday, April 25 at 12:00noon at the gym to go over the Spring Leaning Challenge and nutrition information for anyone who is interested. We will discuss the Paleo and Zone diets. You do NOT have to enter the challenge to come to this meeting. It is for everyone and there is no cost.

If you will be participating in the Challenge and can come to this meeting, please bring the clothes for your 'Before' picture.

If you cannot attend this lecture but would like to participate, please email info@crossfitseattle and Nancy will schedule a time to get your 'Before' picture and collect your entry fee.

Below is information from Dave Werner about nutrition and Paleo and Zone eating.

It is possible to change your body composition and your health. Results are highly dependent on food. Exercise helps, but by itself exercise will not give you the results you expect. Our recommendations are driven by results. We have seen many different approaches tried by many different people. When one of our friends and athletes gets his/her eating right it is impossible to miss. They thrive. Their athletic performance leaps, they look great, they bounce. Seriously - bounce. People feel so good when eating right that the simple act of walking has an energy that is hard to miss.

We recommend the Paleo and Zone approaches to eating. Why? Because they work. In our years of training people we have seen uniformly excellent results in people who stick to these approaches. What results? Decreased body fat, increased lean muscle mass, increased energy levels, improved sleep and recovery, increased athletic performance.

We are not trying to sell you anything. You can't buy anything from us. We aren't going to carry any nutrition "products" ever. This is about eating real food that you get from (ideally) farms and markets, with grocery stores being the second choice. A great book about discerning "Food" from edible "products" is "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. This is a short and readable discussion about making good food choices. For a much more thorough analyses of the current state of nutritional science please read "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes. I believe Taubes book to be the most important work on nutrition I've ever seen. For a deep understanding of how the current nutritional recommendations came to be, this work is indispensable.

What are the Zone and Paleo diets? Not 'diets' at all really. Rather, they describe two different aspects of rethinking how you eat. We are talking about permanent changes to the decisions you make about how and what to eat.

The Zone approach concerns itself mostly with the quantity of food eaten, both total size of meals and the relative amount of protein, carbohydrates and fat eaten at each meal.

The Paleo camp is less concerned about quantity, focusing instead on quality. What you eat matters, and if making good food choices, it is hard to over eat.

For daily application here are some resources.

Our friend, Robb Wolf, has been giving great nutrition guidance for a long time. His website is a gold mine. To get you started he has written a shopping guide and several sample menus available here. He has answered many questions and compiled lots of great resources in his FAQ.

"Before" Dave in Summer 2000

"Before" Dave in September 2000

"After" Dave in Fall 2003

First Level II Class at CrossFit Seattle

2009-04-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

We had our first Level II class back on January 17, 2009. The class was well attended and the workout was:

Skill work on Front Levers

WOD: 2 teams: 1 team does as many rope climbs during 5 minutes
while the other team does L-sit Dips. 3 rounds

The teams tied so the tie breaker was 100 squats per person and which ever team finished first won. The teams also did handstands for time.

View all pics here.

CrossFit Radio

2009-04-03T09:25:00.001-07:00

Several people have asked where they can listen to the CrossFit Radio show in which Dave Young interviewed me about training women over age 40. Click here and use the Download as MP3 link on the right side under Nicole's photo. Nicole was the other guest interviewed. She has some interesting things to say about her history as a CrossFitter and about bonding with her son through CrossFit.

It was really fun to recall my own CrossFit history and tie it into my experiences since becoming a trainer.

An astounding number of kettlebell swings!

2009-03-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Saturday 8 AM class involved two max sets of heavy kettlebell swings (and then a whole bunch of jumping rope). Firebreathing CrossFitter Michelle D. chose the 24-kg kettlebell and swung it an insane 121 times nonstop, leaving the rest of us in the dust! If that's not enough, after a break of two or three minutes she swung it again for about 36 swings. Congratulations Michelle, and thanks for giving the rest of us a new goal!

Last Thursday's Fight Gone Bad actually went Really Well for Cedric M. Last time he did FGB was in October 2008. Old score: 187. Thursday's score: 321! He says his best event was the box jump, where he totalled 104 on Thursday. GREAT job, Cedric!

2008 12 Days of CrossFit -- pics are finally up

2009-02-24T11:16:00.000-08:00

Finally!!

Go here for the album.

Monkey Opens Coconut - exercise

2009-02-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

Monkey Opens Coconut from Nancy Meenen on Vimeo.

Kellie, Dave and Alex open the coconut

The movement looks exactly like it sounds. Reach to full height with both arms overhead and quickly drive both hands all the way to the floor. Violent images of smashing a coconut on a rock help get this right. Working yourself into an angry fit REALLY helps.

Resistance to the movement comes from rigging a jump-stretch band to a pull-up bar. Reach up and grasp the band at full extension. Because the elastic band provides a non-linear resistance, it is better to link 2 or 3 bands together and find a higher anchor. In the video we are using 2 bands and a 10 foot high bar.

The point of this movement is to contract the entire front of your body at once. This is quite similar to chopping, sledge-hammering or slam-ball. The difference in using a band for resistance is that we get a very substantial eccentric component. You WILL be surprised by control problems as you stand back up. Have fun!

Dave Werner

Row 2000 meters - some results

2009-02-20T13:17:00.000-08:00

Some of the fastest men on the 2000-meter row yesterday:

Jason P at 6:58 (with a stroke rate of 24 strokes per minute!)
Ryan, 7:03
Jim H, 7:05

Some of the fastest women rowers:

The petite powerhouse Jamilee, 8:03
Emily, 8:09 - she took about 30 seconds off her time from November.
Erika, 8:31

Great job everyone!

Here's Emily after her epic row:

New CLASS times and Info on NW Regional Qualifier for the CrossFit Games

2009-02-05T00:18:00.001-08:00

We have added 2 more classes to the schedule:
Monday's at 4:00pm
Friday's at 4:00pm

Both classes are taught by Scott.

Also, registration is now open for the Northwest Regional Qualifier for the CrossFit Games.
Click here for more information.

Mike Neill rows at Ergomania 2009

2009-02-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

Longtime CrossFitter Mike Neill rowed 1000 meters in 3:37 at Ergomania 2009, the indoor rowing championships held at Seattle U last weekend. Way to go, Mike! He competed in the "Men's Veteran A 1x (50-59) - 1000 meters" division, in which he was the only entrant (and took first place).

Other men were rowing near Mike at the time, but Mike had by far the most solid stroke and maintained his stamina until the end. All that CrossFit and rowing classes have paid off.

The event had about a bazillion divisions, which you can view here.

Rowing at Ergomania 2009 from Fran Mason on Vimeo.

Try this at home!

2009-01-31T12:17:00.000-08:00

Jeff let us have a little craft party in his basement. We made slamballs and weighted PVC, using sand for both. And lots of various glues and plugs.

I used the slamballs out on the patio today with some neighbors:

UW Daily reports on CrossFit Seattle

2009-01-22T10:52:00.000-08:00

Read reporter Michael Truong's story about CrossFit Seattle, complete with workout photos and quotations from trainers and clients. "CrossFit is something you can't really explain; it needs to be experienced," says Scott. Are you experienced?

New CrossFit Classes on Saturdays

2009-01-15T00:06:00.000-08:00

We have added 2 new CrossFit classes to the Saturday schedule.

There is now a 9:00am Level II CrossFit Class. You must test into this class in order to attend.

And there is also a 10:00am CrossFit Class.

Please check CrossFit Seattle's class schedule here.

12 Days of CrossFit Pictures - update

2009-01-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

Where are all the 12 Days of CrossFit Photos?? The pictures I took of you all turned out great (Dave gave me a new lense that gathers more light) but I took the photos at really high resolution on accident. It was taking me almost an hour to load one photo and there are a bunch of photos. I have to reduce the size and will eventually get them loaded. Sorry for the huge delay. I know it's anticlimactic! I will post here and let you know when I have them loaded.

Only three spots left in next kettlebell class, starting Jan. 12

2009-01-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

The next beginning-intermediate kettlebell exercise class starts at 7 PM next Monday, January 12.

Schedule: Monday and Thursday nights at 7:00 for six weeks.
Price: $145 in cash or check on the first night.

This is independent of a gym membership, so if you've wanted to try kettlebells or try CrossFit-style workouts, this is a fun opportunity to do so. It will be the sixth kettlebell class series we've run, and people have agreed that they definitely got the workouts they were hoping for.

With questions, or to sign up, email fran at crossfitseattle dot com or call me at (206) 612-8464. Tell your friends! Thanks!

Tracy Erbeck: 9+ months pregnant and still CrossFitting!

2008-12-26T22:57:00.000-08:00

Tracy on December 16th. Luca is 4 1/2 weeks 'late' at this point! Tracy did CrossFit 2-3 times a week during her entire pregnancy. Okay, I have to admit this. Tracy was 6 months pregnant and beat me on Helen!!! Tracy worked out again on December 18th.

Luca was born on December 20th at 4:30am weighing 6lbs 8 ounces. Welcome to the world Luca!

Aaron, Tracy and Luca

Tracy reports that "the birth was fast and painful. I'd rather do back to back tabatas and finish with a fight gone bad any day of the week!" However, she said she only had to push 4 times. She attributes this to the continued knees to chest exercises during her pregnancy.

Congratulations to Aaron and Tracy on the birth of their son!

We will be OPEN tomorrow: DEC 23rd

2008-12-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hi All! We will be open tomorrow for our regular hours of business. We'll hope to see some of you!

Snowed Out! Monday 22 December

2008-12-21T21:16:00.000-08:00

Level 4 closed Monday

It's a good day to stay close to home

and off the roads

Have a fun day in the snow.

We will keep you posted about tomorrow.

Holiday HOURS

2008-12-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

Dec 24: 9:00am and 10:00am CrossFit Classes

Dec 25: Closed

Dec 31: 6:00am, 9:00am and 10:00am CrossFit Classes

Jan 1: Closed

2008 Twelve Days of CrossFit - results and pictures

2008-12-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

The 5th Annual 12 Days of CrossFit was a blast. Thank you for the great turnout and all the amazing sweat and effort!

Please let nancy@crossfitseattle.com know if your name or time is incorrect. Nice work everyone! The rest of the pictures can be viewed here. I haven't finished uploading them yet (I'll do that over the next 2 nights).

Roberta comes in first for the ladies! Nice going Roberta!

Jason getting it done.

Cedric goes for it!

Two full boxes of food was collected for Northwest Harvest. Thank you so much everyone! Matt will be delivering the food tomorrow. We really appreciate your generosity.

The Grinch himself.

Leigh Anne's superior bear crawl.

Ryan takes it all this year!

Wen cooked all day for the potluck -- THANK YOU WEN! Duck, Yakisoba and more. Delicious!

12 Days of CrossFit

2008-12-13T22:34:00.001-08:00

More than 65 people did yesterday's Twelve Days workout. We had a well-deserved potluck party after the evening workouts, and a couple of big boxes of groceries were collected for a local food bank.

To do the workout you have to work your way up and down the list, just like in the song. It's a long workout and a fun one.

More pictures and video by Wenarto!

12 Days of CrossFit this Friday!!

2008-12-09T23:40:00.000-08:00

Our 5th Annual 12 Days of CrossFit is this Friday at
4:00pm
5:00pm
6:00pm

**Special Request: please bring a non-perishable food item for our Seattle food banks as the entry fee. Thank you!**

Everyone is welcome. We will have our Holiday Potluck starting at 7:00pm.

Here is the famous workout:

A one hundred yard Sprint

Two Bear-crawls and a one hundred yard Sprint

Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Eight Hanging leg-raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Nine Ring-dips, Eight Hanging leg-raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Ten Squat-thrusts, Nine Ring-dips, Eight Hanging leg raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Eleven Pull-ups, Ten Squat-thrusts, Nine Ring-dips, Eight Hanging leg-raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Twelve Rocking pistols, Eleven Pull-ups, Ten Squat-thrusts, Nine Ring-dips, Eight Hanging leg-raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

CrossFit Seattle Triumphs in Battle

2008-12-06T18:36:00.000-08:00

Battle of the Lake, CrossFit Bellevue versus CrossFit Seattle:

Level - 4 CrossFit aka (CrossFit Seattle) vs. CrossFit Bellevue in battle to decide who owes who a "Big Daddy."

Teams will compete to finish the arduous and punishing CrossFit Bellevue obstacle course. Teams must negotiate the obstacle course with their very heavy 135lb barbell "boats." (The whole team carries the boat together! Hoo-yah!)

Obstacles:
1) 100 team sit-ups,
2) 25-yard spoon and egg carry,
3) 100 yard boat carry to truck,
4) 50 dead-lifts,
5) 100-yard carry to parking lot,
6) 50 team push-presses,
7) 50-yard team leap frogs,
8) 50-yard burpee broad jumps,
9) 50 yard team walking lunges,
10) 100 yard carry to truck,
11) 200-yard team waltz (yes, you read that right),
12) 100-yard carry back to gym,
13) 25 team legless push-ups to finish.

Penalties: add 15 seconds per violation (loose hugs, bad waltzing, stepping during broad jumps, half presses). Dirty boat is worth 30 seconds. Broken egg is worth a minute.

The winner was CrossFit Seattle! Way to go everybody!

Photos and video by Wenarto and photos by Jason.