Andrea Handstand 2009

CrossFit Corner

Introducing CrossFit Body

By Andrea Lewin, CrossFit L1 Trainer

Sir! Drop the barbell and take three steps back!

If I asked you to sit and point your toes, would you be able to do it? What about flexing your abdominal muscles? Yes, you could. These are simple movements. Would you believe me when I tell you that you'll completely ignore my simple instructions when I ask you to do them while upside-down?

If you watch CrossFit competitors, athletes at the top of their game, the overwhelming
impression you'll get is one of raw strength and power: tiny-looking men and women lifting (or pushing, or pulling) incredible amounts of weight. Many hours and much training is devoted to improvement of strength and power simply by lifting heavy things, but the hidden variable, the one that comes out best in movements such as handstand walks, the one that you suddenly lack when I turn you upside-down, is body awareness.

We are not all CrossFit competitors, but improvement in CrossFit's 10 physical skills
(recall: Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed,Coordination, Agility, Balance, Accuracy) is what I try to drive every day in group classes and in personal training. Body awareness underlies and greatly helps improvement in all of these skills.

CrossFit Body is a class that takes a different, CrossFit-ty, approach to improvement in the 10 physical skills. I'm taking away your barbell and asking you to focus on awareness of your ownbody first. When you go back to your barbell (or step up to one for the first time!), you may find that your lifts are more efficient and that it's easier to fine-tune your movements and learn new movements.

In each one-hour class, we will have 20+ minutes devoted to warming up and skill learning/ improvement, 5-20 minutes devoted to a brief, intense, CrossFit-style, low-equipment workout, and 20+ minutes of cool down and flexibility/mobility work. The workouts and flexibility/mobility will complement the CrossFit East Bay Workout of the Day ("WOD").

If you're new to CrossFit, or new to exercise in general, come to learn about how CrossFit-style workouts work, or to prepare for an upcoming On-Ramp class.

If you've been doing CrossFit for a while, come to improve your flexibility/mobility, perform some movements that you've never done before, and get an extra workout into your week.

What to expect:
• Open to all, drop in any time
• Stretching and mobility work
• Bodyweight skill work
• Same CrossFit time domains, same CrossFit-style workouts (sans equipment, of course)

Holiday schedule:

Christmas Eve 10:15AM (gym open regular hours)

Christmas Day: CLOSED

New Year's Eve:

8PM CrossFit Class at Diablo Rock Gym

5th Annual Midnight 5K run around Lake Merritt: meet at the pull-up bars across From Gold's Gym at 600 Grand

No classes at GWPC

New Year's Day: Noon 90 minute open to all New Year's Kick-Off WOD at GWPC: Gym is closed New Year's Day, except for this class.

2012 GWPC Class Schedule:

Monday:
6:30AM: CrossFit
Noon: CrossFit
5:15PM: CrossFit
6:15PM: CrossFit
Tuesday:
6:30AM: CrossFit Body, Yoga Room with Andrea (open to all)
Noon: CrossFit
5:15PM: CrossFit
6:15PM: CrossFit
Wednesday:
6:30AM: CrossFit
Noon: CrossFit
5:15PM: CrossFit
6:15PM: CrossFit
Thursday:
6:30AM: CrossFit Body, Yoga Room with Andrea (open to all)
5:15PM: Beginner CrossFit (open to all)
6:15PM: Beginner CrossFit (open to all)
Friday:
6:30AM: CrossFit
Noon: CrossFit
5:15PM: CrossFit
6:15PM: CrossFit
Saturday:
10:15AM: CrossFit
11:15AM: CrossFit
Sunday:
10:15AM: Beginner CrossFit (open to all)
11:15AM: Beginner CrossFit (open to all)

WOD 111217

Warm-Up for 15 minutes as follows:

Run 800 Meters
30 Burpees
Dynamic Mobility
High Knees
Straight Leg March
Butt Kickers
Karaoke

Then:

With a continuously running clock, starting precisely 15 minutes after class begins:

Add up the two run times, convert to seconds, divide by best deadlift. Lower scores are better.

Example One:

Run One: 6:15
Deadlift: 420
Run Two: 6:45

R1+R2= 14:00(840 seconds)

840/420 = 2

Example Two:

Run One: 5:30
Deadlift: 300
Run Two: 6:00

R1+R2= 11:30(690)

690/300 = 2.3

(Both awesome scores, of course)

Post score to comments.