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Warm-up
-Dynamic Mobility Drills
-KB Swings
-Goblet Squats
Workout of the Day
“Death by Burpees”
Perform 1 burpee in the first minute, 2 burpees in the second minute, 3 burpees in the third minute and on and on…
Buy out
3 sets of 1 minute plank holds
I've been told on more than one occasion that I'm crazy. Obsessed with a fitness and lifestyle movement that many can't understand. Pushing my body to the limit and fueling it with the highest quality paleo food i can find is my passion--- and spending the last week in beautiful California with hundreds of like-minded people was a surreal experience. The 2010 CrossfFit games ignited a fire so deep in me I can't wait to get back to work.
This top-notch production was filled with overwhelming and unbelievable feats of elite fitness in action. Right now I'm stuck on the plane, three hours from my box and 30,000 feet up in the air, remembering the wonder of each moment, wishing I could write about each one. Perhaps the most moving was the support of our amazing community. I'm truly humbled by your commitment to Steve's Club and Steve's Originals.
Coach Glassman generously sponsored four Steve's Club Kids to experience the Games this year. The four chosen had never even been on a airplane! Seeing their heroes compete in the WODs was such a great experience for them. Shaking Coach Glassman's hand? That was the icing on the Paleo Treat! Who by the way were two tents down from Steve's Originals in "Vendor Village." I put myself on a one-paleo-treat-per-day limit and enjoyed every bite.
The Steve's Original Team was so proud to be an official sponsor of the games. Seeing our banners hang throughout the Home Depot stadium reminded us how far we've all come in the last five years. My affiliate team from CrossFit Tribe also earned a spot in the Games after finishing fourth in the Northeastern Regional. I experienced the games from every angle: as a sponsor, a competitor and of course, a HUGE fan.
And speaking of fans, Steve's Original has a ton of them! Our tent was the place to be! The line was steady twenty people deep all weekend long. We sold each and every piece of food we brought with us. We know our customers by name, but shaking your hands and placing our Originals directly in your gym bag was the best.
Seeing the delight in your faces as you sampled our new Paleo Stix drives me to fuel the pipeline with more new products that support your lifestyle. Paleo Stix are delicious, organic, grass fed beef sticks. At one Zone protein block per stick (7 grams), they are a great snack. Everyone LOVED them. Our only mistake with this product roll out was not bringing double the quantity! We had many customers buy 2-3 packages in the morning only to come back in the afternoon for more! They will be up on the site in about a week.
PaleoKrunch and PaleoKits were completely sold out too. Handing out Krunch samples was so much fun. "Are you sure there's no grain in this?" was the question heard again and again. "My kids are going to love this!" is one of my favorites. One customer reported using the bag as a bowl and pouring almond milk right in there. CLASSIC! So many people are getting super creative with this product--mixing with fresh squeezed orange juice, sprinkling with frozen blueberries and heating it up with almond butter, and serving it with applesauce. The possibilities to Krunch it are endless.
Endless is also my sincere admiration of all the individual competitors. The WODs were true tests of functional fitness. Watching them athletes battle it out was awe inspiriting. Watching them support each other through the competition is the true beauty of our movement.
And a big congratulations to Graham Holmberg, Kristan Clever and CrossFit Fort Vancouver for earning the top spots. Great job out there!
4 Rounds for time:
12 DB Thrusters
400 meter run
"I have thought often of what it all means. Life thrusts you into a competitive environment. How do you prepare for the realities and the unknown? Hopefully, you have a mentor, a coach who pushes at that critical time. A time when someone has a belief in your future more than you do. It's not about how long you live but how you contribute. It's about doing your best and doing the right thing. It's about recovering from your mistakes and not giving up. It's about the baton pass to a new generation. It's about the realization that you can not do it alone. It takes a team.
In the end, you are somewhere in the middle, part of a never-ending process. The future will never remember what was in your bank account or what kind of car you drove. The future will remember that wild ride of life where you believed in others and left a gift behind for someone else to dream the impossible."
Charlie's son is here! Aiden Henriquez June 26, 2010. 6 lbs, 6 ounces.
Although Charlie is still a very young man and not fully ready for all the responsibilities that fatherhood brings, there is no doubt that he will step up to the challenge and be a great Dad to his son.
Frankly Charlie has no choice. But with the support of his immediate family and extended family at Steve's Club and CrossFit Tribe, he will have enough support needed to handle the stresses and challenges of raising a child at a young age.
As you may know from reading this blog, I talk about Charlie alot as I had the good fortune to watch and help him grow into a mature young man since I first started training him 4 years ago in Centennial Village in North Camden.
Charlie is a great role model to his peers and the younger kids that come to Steve's Club.
As Aiden's godfather, I could not be more proud.
Today I drove over to Urban Promise on Federal Street to teach a new group of kids about CrossFit. My main goal was to get them excited about health and fitness. 8 young guys and 2 girls showed up. I started off by introducing myself and giving them a little history of how I started and how the club began. I then went on to talk about CrossFit for a few minutes to give them an idea what the program was about and what they expected to get out of it and what I expected from them. I told them straight up that I was more than happy to give up my time and offer my services if in return they gave me 100% committment and hard work. Everyone agreed so I preceded on. I start by teaching them a proper plank hold and the importance of having a strong "core" which enabled them to lift weights properly, safely and effectively. We did 3 sets of 30 second holds as a class. Then we had a little fun and played last man standing. John set the Urban Promise plank hold record for a 3 minute hold (nice work John!). Now I had their attention as many of them were focused from holding the planks.
Then I went on to teach the a proper pullup, pushup and air squat which set the stage for our workout: A scaled version of the classic benchmark conditioning workout "Cindy." If you have ever met Cindy before, you probably know that's a rather metabolically challenging workout, especially for someone out of shape. For the pullups, luckily the basement had "I beams" which are perfect for strict pullups and working grip strength. I cut the WOD down to 12 minutes and the reps to 3 pullups, 7 pushups and 12 air squats.
3-2-1....GO!! The clock starts and the music is on. Loud. Everyone fights their way though to the final minute and no one leaves anything to be desired. Despite the dissappointment in a few of their faces as they thought they were in better shape than their score showed, I reassured them that CrossFit was humbling and a major challenge to the fittest indivduals on Earth.
After catching their breath, they all thanked me for a great workout and told me they'll be back next week for more.
Guess we'll see next week who is serious and who is not!
Deadlifts, 3x5
Then...
5 rounds for time:
5 Deadlifts (75% of best 3RM)
10 Burpees
This year we're taking 4 members of SC to the CrossFit Games in
Carlson, California. As you can imagine, they are extremely excited
about the opportunity. Other than Charlie, Jose, Ralf and Esha have
never been to California. Its a first. It will be a great opportunity
to meet the community and many of the people who have supported our
little fitness club over the years. Of course they'll get to see first
hand all the tremendous athletes compete in the same type of workouts
they do everyday...just at a much higher level. But I know once they
get to witness the Games live, the seed will be planted in their head
to work even harder to one day make it to the Big Show. It's the dream
of playing ball in the big leagues, only making it to the CrossFit
Games is much more attainable. Fortunately, from our talks the kids
know that fitness and health is not a race to the Games, but rather a
lifestyle that brings many great benefits such as competing in events
and treating it as a sport. I tell them constantly that while competing
at the higher level is great, remember the goal is to treat health and
fitness as a lifelong journey. One weekend will not make or break you.
The Games are simply a way to showcase your skills and hard work and
bench mark your progress against others.
Honestly it is less about the competition than it is about having
fun, meeting new people, broadening one's horizons, working hard at
everything one does and constantly seeking and finding new positive
experiences in life.
The quest never ends. Achieving optimal health, fitness, happiness and personal and career success is a life long pursuit.
Thanks to Greg Glassman for his generosity to fly Esha, Charlie, Jose and Ralf out to the Games this year, these young crossfitters will have an experience of a lifetime that otherwise would never happen.
If you'll be there, make sure you come by our booth to say hi.
The greatest discovery any outsider could make about Camden is it's overriding response to failure: If it didn’t work last year, do it AGAIN this year (and if possible do it MORE).
Every year they pass more laws, hire more police, build more prisons, and sentence more offenders for longer periods-all without moving one inch closer to “ending” crime. If it didn’t work last year or the year before that or the year before that or the year before that, but you can be sure we’ll try it again this year, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that it won’t work this year either.
Every year they spend more money on schools, hoping to “fix” whatever’s wrong with them, and every year the schools remain stubbornly unfixed. Spending money didn’t work last year or the year before that or the year before that, but you can be sure we’ll try it again this year, knowing beyond shadow of a doubt that it won’t work this year either.
Every year they try to make the criminals go away, and every year they remain with us. We couldn’t shoehorn these criminals back into the “the mainstream” last year or the year before that or the year before that or the year before that, but you can be sure we’ll try it again this year, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that it won’t work this year either.
Maybe its time to TRY something DIFFERENT.
Afterall, IF Camden is saved, it will not be saved by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all.
Much of my inspiration comes from Daniel Quinn in "Ishmael."