Have a great day.  Don’t forget to check out all of the Regional action on the CrossFit Games site.

Does your diet look like this?

Pick a benchmark workout of your choice today.  The goal here is to pick a workout that contains an element that you want to, or have made progress in.

The default workout will be:
Diane
21-15-9 reps for time of:
Deadlift 100kg
Handstand Push-ups

Post workout choice and time to comments.

Diane is the first workout at this years Regionals.  It is a classic pull, push couplet of weightlifting and gymnastics and should make for a spectacular start to the event.  This is my effort from about 2 years ago and which was a pretty fast time at the time but I think the top times at regionals will be much closer to the 2 minute mark, if not below!  I haven’t done this workout since this video was shot, so I am excited to see what time I can do at regionals.

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As the lightest male qualifier in the Australian Region and maybe the world, I have had lots of people ask me my opinion of the Regional Workouts.  I can only guess, but I assume this is because they expect to hear me rant and rave about the volume of heavy stuff.

Before we get on to my opinion of the workouts, the first thing I want to discuss is the purpose of the CrossFit games and the events that lead up to it.  Firstly, I don’t have the ability to talk to Dave Castro and co.  so I can only speculate as to the thought processes that went into the workout selection and what you read here is merely my opinion.

Let’s start with the CrossFit Open.  I see the Open as the first filter to determine who has some raw work capacity while being inclusive to the masses.  This year I think we saw a good spread of movement and difficulty but  what made this year interesting was the formats that created barriers which resulted in large separations in scores.  I would love to know the thought process behind this and whether it panned out the way they wanted it to, but I’ll probably never know.  The take away for me from this years Open was that you can never underestimate the value of a single workout or rep and that you have to put your best foot forward every single week.

The Regionals is a chance to then determine which of those athletes can apply that capacity to some technical and or heavy movement and to further filter the field down to a few people who could legitimately contend for the title of fittest man or women in the world.  There is lots of debate going on as to whether the Regional workouts are fair for athletes of differing size but few people seem to be focusing on what I believe is the most important thing – will they result in the the fittest people (as per CrossFit’s definition) making it to the games.

Now to my opinion of the Regionals.  I don’t think the Regional events are fair for athletes at the extreme ends of the size spectrum and nor do I think they need to be.  There are many sports that eliminate people of differing sizes due to different physical demands and I think CrossFit is one of them – think Basketball and Gymnastics.  I chose to participate in this sport knowing the possible advantages and disadvantages my size might create and that is why I love it.  What I do think is interesting is that there seems to have been a departure from increasing the difficulty of the gymnastic element in line with the increase in weight or difficulty of the weightlifting elements.  In 2009 we saw parallette HSPU, in 2010 we saw Ring HSPU and then in 2011 we took (in my opinion) a step backwards to the kipping HSPU.  This is just one example, but the gymnastic element of CrossFit competition seems to have stagnated. Once again without hearing the thought process behind it, I can only speculate.   Ultimately, I think the best information will come once all of the Regionals and the Games have taken place.  We now have enough of a back catalogue of information from previous games, regionals, sectionals and local competitions to know who the proven performers are, and if they don’t do well then maybe the test of fitness was not as good as it could be.  We can not forget that there is no super computer that simply punches out workouts that are the best test of fitness.  This is a human process and where there are humans involved there will be mistakes along the way.  Let’s see how it all pans out.

For me, the goal is to progress with the sport for as long as possible and while these regional events are going to be difficult, I look at them as a personal challenge and if I can perform to my best potential, where that sits me in the field is irrelevant.

Back Squat 3 x 5 @ 80%

then….

Three rounds for max reps:
1 min. Thrusters 40kg (30kg)
1 min rest

Post load and reps to comments.

Always Hungry

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One of the first things we do when someone undertakes their introductory session at Coastal CrossFit is to explain the goal of our program.  We do this right at the start so that if for some reason someone has come to us to become the next Mr Olympia etc. we can shake hands and point them in a direction that will suit their goals without wasting anyone’s time.  From that point on we assume that our athletes agree with the goal of our program and want to improve continually at the fastest rate possible – unless they tell us otherwise.

The first thing to do is work out what you want from the program and let us know. Our approach with someone who wants to train for general well-being will be quite different to that of someone who has a goal to get to the regionals or CrossFit games, and it needs to be.

The next thing to do is make sure your actions match your goals. If you have stated that you want to be competitive in the sport of CrossFit and your not implementing our advice or training frequently enough to achieve the goal, then the goal simply becomes a bunch of words rather than a series of actions.

The moral of the story is that we can’t read minds and we will always default to offering the best advice we can to each and every one of our members unless that member lets us know more specifically what they want. Please do not hesitate to grab either Marie or Chris for a chat so that we can continue to offer the best service possible.

Tabata Intervals
Row
Ball Slam
Box Jumps
Double-unders
Pull-ups

Perform 8 x 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest to each of the above listed movements.  Rest 1 minute between exercises.

Post total reps and difficulty performed on each exercise to comments.

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Have a great Anzac Day. Lest we forget.

Here is a workout you can do from home:
100 Double-unders
25 Burpees
80 Double-unders
20 Burpees
60 Double-unders
15 Burpees
40 Double-unders
10 Burpees
20 Double-unders
5 Burpees

Scale volume appropriately to keep the intensity high.

As most of you know Tanya R dropped a 15kg weight on her foot a few weeks ago and has been wearing a moon boot ever since.  This type of obstacle would be enough to see many people take an extended break from training but to her credit, Tanya has continued to turn up to train regardless of how hard the WOD looks.  Tanya has used this opportunity to focus on some weaknesses and is making excellent progress which is an awesome example of what can be done when you look on the bright side of a situation. Tanya – you should be proud of your efforts.

Deadlift 4×5 80%
Push Press 4×5 80%

Post loads to comments.

Weekly Challenge: 200 Hollow Rocks

Three sets of max reps Strict Pull-ups on a 2 min cycle

then….

Three rounds for max reps of:
1 min OH Squat
1 min rest
1 min Snatch Balance
1 min rest
1 min Hang Snatch
1 min rest

Pick a load that is challenging but will allow good movement. Post load and total reps to comments.

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