In a recent LA Times Health and Fitness blurb a reader asks why his trainer has him doing "routines that he calls 'functional training,' in which I'm balancing on one leg while exercising with weights." Some functional training, the columnist replies, includes movements in which "you might stand on a wobble board while doing a shoulder press." What we in CrossFit mean when we talk about functional movements is one that looks like something that you might do in your everyday life. When you do a deadlift you are training to pick up a heavy object safely. Period. When you perform a press, you are training to push a heavy object away from you, overhead or otherwise. Period. Do you ever stand on a bosu ball to put something heavy on a high shelf? Make your workouts look like you life and you will get better at life. Period.


The workout seems as infinite as the horizon

Today's Workout
5 rounds for time of:
400m Run
21-15-9-6-3 decreasing reps each round of
Wall Jumps
Push Ups
Bicycles (2 count)

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 88
Burpees To Date: 3916
Burpees Remaining: 1134

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As I woke up January 1st with the same aches in my back and knee that I woke up with on December 31st I realized that New Year's Day was just like the day before. It is a great symbolic day to start something new in life, fitness related or otherwise, but the important thing to remember is that January 1 is not a magical day. Any promises made in the New Year are going to ask for the same hard work and commitment that they would have last year. I am certainly not encouraging anyone NOT to make the resolutions that were on their mind as last year drew to a close (DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!), but remember it is your resoluteness that is going to turn the resolution into the results you are looking for.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


Fly, Joe, fly!

Today's Workout
400 m run
50 squats
25 burpees
50 arch rocks
25 sit-ups
50 squats
25 burpees
50 arch rocks
25 sit-ups
400 m run

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 85
Burpees to Date: 3665
Burpees Remaining: 1395

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Tim dives for the catch!

Today's Workout
"Angie"
100 pull ups, 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats
Modification for no pull up bar: 125 push ups, 125 sit ups, 125 squats

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 84
Burpees to Date: 3570
Burpees Remaining: 1480

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Finishing a 400

Today's Workout
5 rounds: 40 walking lunges, 20 burpees

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 83
Burpees to Date: 3486
Burpees Remaining: 1564

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Masters at the bottom of a bottom-to-bottom

Today's Workout
400m run
100 bird pickers
400m run
80 plank ups
400m run
60 burpees
400m run
40 squats

*plank ups - starting in a plank position on your elbows, raise yourself into a plank position on your hands, one hand at a time, and back down. That counts for one.

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 82
Burpees to Date: 3403
Burpees Remaining: 1647

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Here's something to miss!

Today's Workout
50-40-30-20-10
Mountain climbers (2 count)
sit ups
good mornings

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 81
Burpees to Date: 3321
Burpees Remaining: 1729

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There really is a Nicole!

Today's Workout:
"Nicole"
AMRAP in 20 minutes
400 m run
max reps pull ups

count number of pull ups for each round

*no pull up bar? Do max reps push ups instead!*

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TO DAY?
Today's Burpees: 80
Burpees to Date: 3240
Burpees Remaining: 1810

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Couples lateral raises!

Today's Workout

20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2
bicycles (4 count)
lateral bridges (left side)
arch rock
lateral bridges (right side)

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TO DAY?
Today's Burpees: 79
Burpees to Date: 3160
Burpees Remaining: 1890

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Gretchen Rocks!

Today's Workout
"Michael"
3 rounds
800 m run
50 arch rocks
50 sit ups

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TO DAY?
Today's Burpees: 78
Burpees to Date: 3081
Burpees Remaining: 1969

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The crew does mountain climbers

Today's Workout

The 12 Days of Christmas
1 push up
2 plank ups
3 mountain climbers
4 arch rocks
5 bicycles
6 burpees
7 jumping lunges (2 count)
8 squat jumps
9 flutter kicks (2 count)
10 good mornings
11 pull ups
1200 m run

Round 1: 1 push up
Round 2: 2 plank ups, 1 push up
Round 3: 3 mountain climbers, 2 plank ups, 1 push up
etc...through round 12

*plank ups - starting in a plank position on your elbows, raise yourself into a plank position on your hands, one hand at a time, and back down. That counts for one.

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TO DAY?
Today's Burpees: 77
Burpees to Date: 3003
Burpees Remaining: 2047

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Today's Workout
AMRAP in 20 minutes
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

*if you don't have a pull up bar, do 10 push ups instead of 5 pull ups*

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TO DAY?
Today's Burpees: 76
Burpees to Date: 2926
Burpees Remaining: 2124

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We've got a new student, Monica, joining us at the beach lately. Welcome aboard! Reminder: Crossfit Los Angeles will be closed between Christmas Eve and New Years Day (December 24-January 1) and will start up again bright and early the morning of Friday, January 2. Don't worry, just visit this site every weekday and I'll be posting a workout to make sure you can stay in awesome CrossFit shape over the holidays. Also, don't forget your burpees!


Monica sets ups for a medicine ball clean

Today's Workout
100 double unders (or 6 minutes)
2 minute rest
Bottom to Bottom Tabata Squats
100 double unders (or the number you got to in the first 6 minutes)

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 74
Burpees to Date: 2775
Burpees Remaining: 2275

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Having trouble losing weight no matter how hard you try? Turns out if you are not getting enough sleep, that could be having a big impact on you progress. Researchers at the University of Chicago found that restricting a group of women to less than 4 hours of sleep a night wreaked such havoc on their metabolism and hormones that their bodies had a hard time processing glucose in their blood. Even in studies of less than 6 hours a night, subjects needed 30 percent more insulin to process their food, a trait that predisposes people to weight gain. Getting enough sleep is not just necessary for your mental health and muscle recovery anymore!


Agatha reaches for the finish line!

Today's Workout
**CrossFit LA Baseline**

followed by:

3 rounds
21 sandbag swings
15 jumping squats
9 TGU

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 71
Burpees to Date: 2556

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So Monday was a little wet. I have always thought that we could find a safe haven under the pier in the event of rain, but it turns out that in this kind of storm it actually floods pretty badly in there. Nonetheless, we had three people show up to work out! Although I couldn't offer them a CrossFit workout after all, they certainly got a mental workout just getting there. Each one of them had a pretty good reason to stay in bed - and no one would have blamed them if they had. Strengthening your resolve to do what you signed up for even when you have GREAT reasons not to is a super workout in itself. That's not to say that if you stayed in bed this morning you did anything wrong - going out in the freezing rain to work out is just plain crazy! Thanks for being there for the class and for each other!


Ryan, Masters, and Monica - Rainy day die hards

** Don't forget! Friday is our first official Baseline check-in day! Make sure to be there to see how far you've come since you started CrossFit! **

Today's Workout


HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 69
Burpees to Date: 2415

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Who loves it when their workout consists of multiple sets of explosive sprints? OK, I admit it - not I. Sprint after sprint after sprint can feel like a devastating blow to your cardio-respiratory system. Short, powerful sprints aren't just a brutal metabolic workout, though. They can do a heck of a lot for increasing your ability to perform quick, explosive movements. Plyometric training is often used to develop these kinds of movements, but to be "plyometric" the foot must be in contact with the ground for less than .2 seconds. Sprinting fits this bill well where contact times are between .08-.20 seconds under around three times the sprinters bodyweight! In a recent article in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research researchers reported a significant increases in isometric squat strength, squat jump power, and countermovement (starting with legs fully extended) jump power in a sprint group over a plyometric group. Want powerful sport performance? Sprinting is a key to the explosiveness that elite athletes exhibit.


Tim sprints it out with the added difficulty of the sand

Today's Workout
Burpee Ladder

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 67
Burpees to Date: 2278

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One of the very unique aspects of CrossFit is the intensity at which the workouts take place. That "red zone" we talk about is a very real place that it is important to be able to navigate honestly. What is prescribed is working out as hard as possible, resting only when necessary, and recovering just enough to be able to continue the workout. Most of us are used to full recovery before moving on. Where are you? Where could you be? Where would you like to be? The best time to ask yourself is during your next workout!


Tim levitates

Today's Workout
AMRAP in 20 minutes
9 push ups
15 sit ups
21 squats

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 64
Burpees to Date: 2080

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When was the last time you actually got out on the field and put your CrossFit skills to work? One of the tenets of CrossFit, contained in "World Class Fitness in 100 Words" is "Regularly learn and play new sports." This is not only advice to make your life fun (but good advice it is), it can actually be an integral part of your fitness. Learning new sports presents all kinds of stimulating challenges to your body and your nervous system. Meanwhile, it's a great and exciting way to improve on your fitness without feeling like you're working out! There are all kinds of fun adult leagues out there from softball, to kickball, to ultimate frisbee. Get out there and play ball!


CrossFit on the Ultimate Rugby field!

Today's Workout
Tabata sprints

50 sandbag SDLHP
100 sit ups
50 sandbag SDLHP

Tabata sprints

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY
Today's Burpees: 62
Burpees to Date: 1953

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One of the primary focuses of CrossFit is to develop explosive power derived from the hips. This is accomplished by performing a whole variety of movements from cleans and snatches to kettlebell swings to box jumps to sumo deadlift high pulls. Women need to develop that explosiveness in equal measure to men, though by the looks of this old exercise from a bygone exercise manual, women's hips are just for doing the Charleston!


Developing hip power then and now

Today's Workout
Ultimate Rugby!

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 60
Burpees to Date: 1830

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Being that our workouts are more like sport than your traditional weight lifting and cardio, it is possible that you may someday finding yourself nursing some kind of simple, common athletic injury - a rolled ankle, a pulled muscle, a sore lower back. It is important to listen to what is going on with your body if you don't ultimately want to end up "on the bench" for any longer than you have to be. The primary thing is to rest the injury. The second thing is to keep yourself moving in other ways. The great thing about the variety in CrossFit is that you pretty much never have to sit out a workout because of injury. It is also much better for your healing if you actually stay in the game. A testament to CrossFit is that you don't have to keep doing squats to get better at squats. Strengthening your core and other stabilizing muscles will ensure your improvement even while not performing the specific movement!

\
Those who cannot remember the past...

Today's Workout
400 m walking lunges

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 57
Burpees to Date: 1653

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Inevitably CrossFit introduces people to movements that they haven't ever seen or heard of before in their fitness careers ("Burpees," anyone? How about "heaving snatch balance?"). Some of use were perfectly happy never to have known some of these movements, but others are interesting, challenging, even FUN! What is one thing that you never would have done were it not for CrossFit that you now enjoy doing? Post to comments.


The Gym

Today's Workout
5 rounds
150m hill sprint
With sandbag:
5 shoulder press
10 push press
15 push jerk

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BURPEES TODAY?
Today's Burpees: 55
Burpees to Date: 1540

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