It has been a long time for the TOP 5

For those who are new to the gym and have not yet experienced Top 5. Basically we create a discussion of your TOP 5 of what ever the topic is.

Saturday at 8:00 we will have a camera crew at the gym to create a Promo Video for our website. I am asking for as much participation as we can muster. So if you are availible on Saturday, please come join us for the 8:00 WOD.

Today’s Top 5

What are your TOP 5 CrossFit videos, commercials, or ads found on Youtube or other sites. Please include the link in your post. Below are examples of what we are looking for.

Post Top 5 to “comments”

What you do every day when you come to the gym is spreading across the nation. BE PROUD of being a CrossFitter

Some of our fellow CrossFitters have put up a challenge for anyone who wants to participate. For the month of February there will be a “Daily 100″ if you would like to do the “Daily 100″ follow the events calendar on the right side of the website to see what movement is scheduled for that day. Post comments to the daily WOD as you desire.

Today is Double Unders x 100

The Rest of the schedule will be posted by tomorrow

FIT & FEARLESS 2012

January 28-March 24

8 Weeks – $80

Are You Ready to Step Up to the CHALLENGE?

Discover what your fitness strengths and weaknesses are.

Make Big Gains in your Overall Fitness

Strengthen Your Weaknesses

Improve Your Strengths

Become FIT!

Become FEARLESS!

Click below to Read More!

Fit and Fearless 2012 Guidelines

Contact Mike for Registration and Questions

mike@crossfitdesmoines.com

We have had great attendance in all of our classes thus far in 2012. To me this shows the dedication of the CrossFit Des Moines/Waukee athletes.

Even when the gym is full the Coaches are witnessing athletes overcome the tangible things like space and focusing on those intangibles like perseverance, focused training, intensity, and most of all camaraderie.

Keep up the strong work guys. As CrossFit Des Moines/ Waukee has always done, we will ensure that the quality of training only gets better each and every day.

Lets Give a shout out to the Coaches for doing a Great job managing all the Classes and Delivering great workouts day in and day out!

One week left for registration. Email mike@crossfitdesmoines.com to register.

You will schedule your testing time for Saturday January 28th via email with Mike.

Test should take about 90 min. This includes adequate rest time between events.

Great Saturday WOD today. Thank you for all who attended. For those who have not yet attended a Saturday WOD. It is a great time to meet some of the other CFDM and CFW members that you may not see on a regular basis.

It has been a great start to the year. We are seeing  upbeat, motivated, hard working classes all across the board. People are reaching goals, accomplishing feats thought not possible before. Keep up the good work!

Announcements:

Class Change- CrossFit Des Moines (Urbandale) 8:45a Class has OFFICIALLY changed to 9:00a. You may still come early, however know that the Coach will not be ready for you to start warm-up until 9:00a.

Fit & Fearless Challenge- Registration is officially open. Email Mike at mike@crossfitdesmoines to register. $80 fees are due by Friday January 27th 5:00p. Pre-tests will begin on Saturday January 28th. You will be able to schedule your time when you register. Tests begin at 8:00a Saturday January 28th.  A link to the test description is located at end of post.

Go Ruck Challenge - Many questions have come up about this challenge. I will be contacting “GO RUCK” today and getting further details. I think it is a great event, however I am still unsure on some of their expectations. I will notify you all as soon as I know more.

Class Email Lists - The Coaches would like to compose a class email and phone list for each class time. This will be used for the coaches to address the class on things such as class specific announcements, words of encouragement, etc. Please email your coach the following:

Name

Class time

Email address (that you use)

Phone (that you use)

CFDM

5:15a quentinhuisman@hotmail.com

8:00/9:00a mike@crossfitdesmoines.com

12:00 mike@crossfitdesmoines.com

5:15/6:00p barkelak@gmail.com

Fit and Fearless Pre-test and Post-test

Fit and Fearless 2012

First of all, if you have not subscribed to the CrossFit Journal, I HIGHLY recommend it. Not only does it have endless information on CrossFit movements, fitness development, and athletic competency, if you really read some of the original documents published by Coach Glassman, you will find a wealth of information that will inspire you to keep improving you fitness levels. The topic I want to discuss is taken form the CrossFit Journal’s pioneering article “What is Fitness” by Greg Glassman.YOUR HEALTH. Please read the excerpt below.

“There is another aspect to the CrossFit brand of fitness that is of great interest and immense value to us. We have observed that nearly every measurable value of health can be placed on a continuum that ranges from sickness to wellness to fitness. Though tougher to measure, we would even add mental health to this observation. Depression is clearly mitigated by proper diet and exercise, i.e., genuine fitness.

For example, a blood pressure of 160/95 is pathological, 120/70 is normal or healthy, and 105/55 is consistent with an athlete’s blood pressure; a body fat of 40% is pathological, 20% is normal or healthy, and 10% is fit. We observe a similar ordering for bone density, triglycerides, muscle mass, flexibility, HDL or “good cholesterol”, resting heart rate, and dozens of other common measures of health. Many authorities (e.g. Mel Siff, the NSCA) make a clear distinction between health and fitness. Frequently they cite studies that suggest that the fit may not be health protected. A close look at the supporting evidence invariably reveals the studied group is endurance athletes and, we suspect, endurance athletes on a dangerous fad diet (high carb, low fat, low protein).

Done right, fitness provides a great margin of protection against the ravages of time and disease. Where you find otherwise examine the fitness protocol, especially diet. Fitness is and should be “super-wellness.” Sickness, wellness, and fitness are measures of the same entity. A fitness regimen that doesn’t support health is not CrossFit.”

Essentially what Coach Glassman is suggesting here is that no matter what your age is, no matter what your “fitness level” is, your health is what stands alone as our over all goal.

“Sickness” indicates those who have pathological diseases, diabetes, congestive heart failure, obesity, cancer, etc. Some of these illnesses are simply out of our control no matter how healthy you are. However, the likelihood of falling into the “sickness” category drastically decrease as your HEALTH improves.

“Wellness” is the category that we all see on charts at the Doctors office, in magazines, on the internet, this is your average person. Stable blood pressure, average heart rate, within normal limits for body fat %, some measurable muscle mass, etc. Many people who consider themselves to be “fit” still fall under the “Wellness” category because they are just average on these tests. Or they “fall within normal limits.” We want to take it a step further.

“Fitness” is the category we are striving for. We want to have ABOVE average blood pressure, we want ABOVE average resting heart rate, we want to be more flexible than the average person, we want to strive for high endurance capacities, we want to have efficient and effective muscle mass. No matter what the measurement is, in order to improve our HEALTH we want to strive to be ABOVE average. And strive to maintain that for the duration of our life.

Obviously age is a factor we can not control, and some things will just come with age. But its our charter to fight that every single day we wake up. Things like diet, CrossFit, family activities, social activities, etc. We do not want to be that 70 y/o person who has become sedentary, needs assistance living, can’t play with grand kids. We want to be that 90 y/o person who still can take care themselves, be active, be social, and BE HEALTHY!

This topic may first come across as depressing or gloom. However I suggest we embrace it and celebrate our Health no matter our age. When analyzing your fitness level, your health, and making it relevant to your age, it is common to consider your actual age in years as your mark for comparison. I would like to offer another perspective on your age. What is your CrossFit Age? How long have you been thinking with the mindset similar to what I have previously pointed out. So if you are concerned about that number that correlates to your age in years, take the perspective “I’m a young new CrossFitter, filled with fire and brimstone” and I am going to BECOME AS HEALTHY AS POSSIBLY!

With a few birthdays today I thought this would be a good topic to discuss.

Mike

Come join Coach James on Saturday, January 14th, at 3pm for another agility class!

Coaches Prep Course paid off…

Jason Worked with James for 20 Minutes and this was the result

Same Situation with Jay. 1st Week at CrossFit and 20 Minutes with Coach James and this is the result…

CrossFit – “The Magic is in the movements, the Art is in the Programming.” CrossFit Des Moines/Waukee subscribes to methodology and philosophy that CrossFit HQ has set forth. In this methodology and philosophy of training there are many elements, however one element that we as athletes and coaches tend to forget or overlook, is Virtuosity. Virtuosity is defined as “performing the common uncommonly well.” How does this relate to you and me and our WOD’s? At CFDM /CFW we strive to achieve perfection in all of our movements, we strive to become more fit, we strive to reach our goals, we strive to improve our times and PR’s. However along the way we often overlook the commonality and simplicity of some of our movements. Do we always have perfect form on our Push-ups? Do we always perform full range air Squats? I would wager to say that all of us from time to time, narrow our view to the “CLOCK;” but what is our end goal? A Fast WOD time or a lifetime of fitness? The latter of the two is what all of you should have answered.

With that being said, I would like to express to you the importance of Virtuosity. This goes to both the athlete and the coach. We all need to make an internal commitment to ourselves that each and everyday we show up to the Box we will strive to execute the simplest movements uncommonly well! This will not only result in greater gains in the more technical movements, but down the road years from now, you will look back and have a strong sense of accomplishment because you know that it took a lot of personal hard work and dedication to not let the basics fall by the wayside, you will look back and see your overall fitness and know in fact that your fitness level is built on strong foundations.

Take some time to think through all of the WODs you have completed, whether you have been here for 2 years or 2 days. Ask yourself did I execute the simplest movements, like push ups or air squats without cutting corners?’ Did I fully clear parallel on my squats? Did stand and completely lock out my hip and legs? Did I fully lock out my push ups? This goes for more intermediate movements as well, did I fully lock out every Push Press? Did I completely open up my hips on Sumo Deadlifts? Yes, I know that it is impossible to be perfect, and that is not what I am suggesting. I am suggesting that we constantly strive to do the common uncommonly well.

Mike

-Information extracted from “CrossFit Journal”, Aug 2005, Greg Glassman

Below is Kyle performing Wall Ball, he is demonstrating Virtuosity in this movement: