Most athletes at WCF have great form on their back squat and pretty good form on the front squat.  When the barbell goes overhead things change fast.  The overhead squat isn’t just a test of strength:  It requires balance, flexibility, excellent midline stabilization, AND strength.  Back in the good old days of CrossFit every day started with “The CrossFit warmup” which included 3 rounds of 15 overhead squats with PVC or an empty bar.  Today we’ll be doing heavy overhead squats before the WOD and lightweight OHS during the WOD.  If you’ve got serious form issues a great way to get better would be to add that 3×15 to your warmup or cooldown and address your strength and mobility issues.  How do you know if you’ve got a good OHS?  Bodyweight x 15 reps is the gold standard.

19/June/2013 Wednesday WOD

In 7 minutes build to heavy OHS single then:

3 Rounds for time

30 Overhead squats x 45/33

20 Box Jumps

10 HSPU’s

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Optional challenge:  Attempt 15 OHS @ bodyweight

Thanks to Steve Rossi for this great photo of Jackie B at Regionals this year!

Today we’re welcoming a new coach onto our staff, Camille.  Camille is a former collegiate athlete and competed in track and field for Weber State.  She’s also a junior high teacher who holds a masters degree in education.  She has a great attitude, tremendous work ethic, and we’re excited to add another coach to our roster who has competed at high levels and who loves connecting with people and helping you be your best.  We’re excited that so many of our coaches were collegiate athletes:  Michaela, Camille, JB, Amy C, Jackie B, and Adrian.  Many of them have degrees in Sports Exercise science, education , or fitness related fields.  Why do we think this matters?  Because they’ve had years of coaching from both good and bad trainers and can bring a wealth of experience to your training so that WCF is the best it can be for you.  After being coached from junior high through college they’ve got a pretty good idea of what goes into a great training session and how to bring out the best in their athletes.  If you ask around you’ll notice that most of our coaches bring significant life experience to their job outside of CrossFit:  marathons, triathlons, military experience, firefighters, SWAT, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, and some have coached CrossFit longer than 90% of the boxes in Utah have been in business.  This translates to passionate people who are also highly competent doing what they love every day:  training you!

18/June/2013 Tuesday WOD “AMRAP Helen”

As many rounds of “Helen” as possible in 15 minutes

Run 400m

21 Kettlebell swings (1.5/1)

12 Pullups

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Happy Father’s day to all the dads at WCF.  I know Father’s day was yesterday but the Father’s role in the family is hugely important and I wanted to honor the Dads at WCF.  While I appreciate all things manly being a Father isn’t about machisimo.  It’s about being an example for our children:  how to love, how to work, moral strength, strength of character, and physical strength too.  Most boys learn how to treat women from watching how their Dad treats their Mom and daughters set an expectation of how they’re going to be treated based on how Dad treats them.  I learned work ethic, honesty, unconditional love, and courage from my Dad and I’m grateful every day for the example he is in my life.  Happy Father’s day, this WOD’s for you guys!

17/June/2013 Monday WOD

Warmup:  Build to heavy barbell complex of 1 deadlift*1 hang power clean*1 TNG power clean then:

3 Power Cleans

6 Pushups

6 Power Cleans

12 Pushups

9 Power Cleans

18 Pushups

12 Power Cleans

24 Pushups

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Rx:  185/133  Silver:  150/103  Bronze:  115/73

Optional:  100 reps, any core movement

WORLD CLASS FITNESS IN 100 WORDS

Someone tells these two that CrossFit is too hard to be fun!

9am until we’re done on Saturday, it’s time to throw down some volleyball!  We’ll offer open gym and Chiu will be there running Oly at 8:15am and 9:15am as well as the 7am open gym.  However, the main event will be some fun and volleyball.  Bring a side dish or some drinks and come get after it.  Volleyball!

13/June/2013

Build to heavy clean and jerk in 10 minutes then:

21, 15, 9

Clean & Jerks (95/63)

Box Jumps (20)

Optional:  7 CTB Pullups/minute x 7 Minutes

Rick & Wendee getting done at 5:30am!

Saturday is volleyball day at Wasatch!  We’ll be playing in the grass next to the gym.   Bring a lawn chair, your favorite Paleo or not so Paleo food and snacks, and get ready to throw down and have some fun!  We’ll have 2 nets up:  One for people like me who would rather die than lose, and for people who just want to have some fun playing a relaxing game with friends.  It starts at 9am and goes until we’re done!

12/June/2013 Wednesday WOD  “Nancy”

5 Rounds for Time

15 Overhead Squats (95/63)

Run 400m

Along with great movement Summer has tremendous discipline!  Ask her about the results she experienced during our Spring nutrition challenge. 

Our job as trainers has a few key aspects.  Get you moving well.  Get you eating above the 80% compliance mark.  And build a sense of community such that you’ll want to keep coming back even though our workouts are a lot harder than reading a magazine while you do cardio.  Nutrition challenges are a great chance to create the experience of what life would be like if you could be 100% strict on your training and eating.  Amazing things happen in 6 short weeks.  This challenge we had people lose over 10lbs, one lost over 5% bodyfat around his midsection, one lost over 5% bodyfat over their whole body!  The intangible results are even better.  Better health metrics.  Increased longevity and quality of life.

I was waiting for 2 people to get their results in but the wait is over.  In just under an hour I’ll be posting this year’s winner on the blog and on Facebook.  While a $1,000 travel voucher is great the real win is every person who stuck with and has one more year to play with their grandkids someday or one more great vacation where they hike, bike, wear a bathing suit with confidence, or just enjoy the self confidence with knowing that you’re in shape and that shape isn’t round.

Today’s training is courtesy of Adrian.  This is the training that has put Ute CrossFit’s team in a dominant position and is the foundation of our Sport program at Wasatch.  Go hard, have fun, and be ready for a little 21-15-9 action on Wednesday!

11/June/2013 Tuesday WOD “Coach A’s lovely gift to you”

Back Squat 6, 6, 6, 6  AHAP (2:00 rest between sets)

Every Minute on the Minute for 20 Minutes

Even Minutes:  Men Row 20 calories, Women do 13 Pushups

Odd Minutes:  Women Row 14 calories, Men do 17 Pushups

Rest 3 Minutes

30 Strict Toes to Bar (For time)

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You’ll have 4 scores tomorrow:  Squat load, lowest calories rowed and lowest pushups achieved, and time for toes to bar.  If you make the interval every time your scores will be the Rx’ed numbers above for calories and pushups.

Lean and toned, Jessica V!

Congratulations to two of my favorite people, Vaughn and Jessica, who recently celebrated a wedding anniversary.  While it’s cool to produce firebreathing athletes it’s even better to see marriages and relationships get stronger as couples find something they both love, feel better about themselves, and get CrossFit!  Jessica and Vaughn have both transformed both mentally and physically at WCF and we’re proud to call them friends.

10/June/2013 Monday WOD

Every Minute on the Minute for 24 Minutes 20 seconds work, 40 seconds rest

Minute 1:  Kettlebell swings

Minute 2:  1 armed Kettlebell push press (ok to lower with 2 hands)

Minute 3:  run 200m*

If you can’t make 200m in 1:00 run as fast as you can and complete 20 seconds of rest as soon as you get back then jump back on the 1 minute intervals.

Today’s programming is brought to you courtesy of Coach Adrian.  Adrian is a standout athlete who was part of the Ute team who won the Games last year and broke the world records in EVERY event at this year’s Regionals.  We’re lucky to have him as a coach:  his character is the same caliber as his athletic talent.  One of the big benefits of having a coach who competes for Ute is that some of their world class CrossFit culture gets brought into our doors.  I’m not shy in saying that our goal is to win Regionals next year and Adrian will be a big part of developing and training our winning team.

Tomorrow head over to CrossFit Race at 9am for our 5K/get together.  My favorite part about CrossFit is the community/family feeling and Saturday is a chance to get to know the newest part of the WCF family.

7/June/2013 Friday WOD “The Adrian part 1″

Back Squat with 2 count pause at the bottom:  5, 5, 5 then

Row 500m

Burpee broad jump 20m

Row 500m

OH plate lunge x 40m

Row 500m

60m shuttle run

Cool-down:  3 x 20 Hollow Rocks

They say the will to prepare is more important than the will to succeed.  Tiffany’s dominant performance this weekend was the culmination of 4 years of dedicated training.  Some people fail once and quit.  Some people miss the mark twice and they’re done.  It’s that rare individual that can still have the courage to want it after falling short who can succeed on their 3rd or 4th try.  That was Tiffany this weekend.  After a heartbreaking 2012 Games season that ended with 2 dislocated ribs and a 5th place finish this year she dominated the field.  We’re proud of you and can’t wait to watch you tear it up at the CrossFit Games in the Home Depot Center in July!  Now we just have to teach Tiffany how to swim and she’ll be good to go.

6/June/2013 Thursday WOD

AMRAP 18 Minutes

10 Deadlifts @ BW

Farmer Carry 2 Kettlebells 200m (1.5/1)

10 HSPU