Workout of the Day
Arena Ready Entrances: Macho Man & Andre The Giant
On Thursday someone in the gym said their favorite athlete of all time was Andre The Giant. I'm not making this up. Combine this bold statement of opinion with the name of Friday's WOD and you've got yourself an opportunity for some serious WrestleMania nostalgia... which begs the important question:
If every time you entered the gym we played your entrance song on full blast, WHAT SONG WOULD YOU CHOOSE FOR YOUR ARENA READY ENTRANCE???!!!
Bonus points if you have a full wardrobe theme and accessories (and/or hype crew/manager/henchmen) also planned out for your strut through the doors and onto the gym floor.
Happy Friday, folks!
WOD for 04-14-17:
Power Clean + 2 Front Squats + 2 Push Jerks:
10 Minutes To Establish Loading Heavier Than To Be Used Below
-then-
"Mini Macho Man"
EMOM For As Long As Possible:
3 Power Cleans @ 155/105 lbs
3 Front Squats
3 Push Jerks
(Compare to 07-19-16 and 07-24-15)
*Workout courtesy of Ben Bergeron
Pre Workout Foam Rolling 101
As many of you know, foam rolling can be a huge help in your regular fitness regimen, but some folks don't have specific routine that effectively covers the most critical areas in preparation for a training session. I thought it would be helpful to share this video from our friends at Catalyst Athletics which walks you through a quick pre-workout foam rolling series that is a great routine for athletes prior to weightlifting and/or CrossFit training.
Shout out to Greg Everett for putting this video together and for including his usual touches of dry humor peppered throughout the information presented. Watch and apply to your daily routine at the gym!
W0D for 04-13-17:
Skill Focus:
Bar Muscle-up
-then-
2 Rounds For Time:
44 Overhead Walking Lunges w/Plate @ 45/35 lbs
33 Calorie Row
22 Hang Power Snatches @ 95/65 lbs
11 Bar Muscle-ups
Lost & Found Final Call
Reminder to please check the gym's Lost & Found and storage cubbies for any items that may be yours. As we mentioned in last week's post, we'll be clearing those areas out at the end of the week and donating the remaining items - so make sure to claim your stuff! Don't worry, the puzzles are safe...
WOD for 04-12-17:
Alternating EMOM For 6 Rounds (12 Minutes):
1) 3 Deadlifts, climbing
2) 12 Hollow Rocks
-then-
For Time:
21 Deadlifts @ 185/135 lbs
63 Double Unders
400m Run
15 Deadlifts
45 Double Unders
400m Run
9 Deadlifts
27 Double Unders
400m Run
The Arena of Life
Every now and then a stranger walks by the gym when the doors are all rolled up and the place is jumping with energy, and they usually look both bewildered and intrigued. They gawk at a warehouse full of people working their asses off doing a bunch of odd looking movements... sweating, screaming at each other in support, and looking like they're one part suffering and one part partying.
Often times these onlookers will ask me, "Dude, what the hell are y'all trainin' so damn hard for?!" Sometimes it's followed-up with "is this some sort of co-ed football team or fighting practice?"
My answer is simple, and is usually the same every time. "Nah, this isn't a sports team. These are our members. We're training hard not to suck at life."
WOD for 04-11-17:
Back Squat:
Six work sets of FOUR reps, as follows:
A) 14 Minutes For...
4-4-4-4 Climbing to a Top Set*
*Add to your top set from 04-03-17
B) 6 Minutes For...
Two "drop" sets:
1x4 @ 85% of your top set
1x4 @ 80% of your top set
-then-
AMRAP 12 Minutes:
500m Row
20 Box Jumps @ 24/20 in
20 Kettlebell Swings @ 53/35 lbs
20 Toes-to-Bar
20 Kettlebell Goblet Squats @ 53/35 lbs
2017 Open Award Winners
Thanks so much to everyone who came out on Saturday afternoon/evening to celebrate during our annual Arena Ready End of The Open Get Together! We had over 60 folks come by to say hello, hang out, eat/drink, and socialize with friends outside of the gym, and a fun time was had by all... we even relished in the surprisingly dry weather while huddled around the firepit. For those who were not able to make it you were certainly missed - we'd like to list the "awards" we handed out during the evening to fill you all in, and to give the winners another shout out on this forum:
Top 3 Open Finishers - Men (by placement in the NorCal Region):
1) Walker T.
2) Jon M.
3) James M.
Top 3 Open Finishers - Women (by placement in the NorCal Region):
1) Cassie L.
2) Kate F.
3) Liz T.
"Rookie of The Year" - Male:
James O.
"Co-Rookies of The Year" - Female:
Katie S. AKA "Katie Pepper"
Jeannie W.
(Honorable Mention: Marcia R.)
"Spirit of The Open" - Male:
Steven M.
"Spirit of The Open" - Female:
Liz T.
Yami (right), last year's Rookie of The Year, passes the torch on to Jeannie (left), this year's (Co-)Rookie of The Year
Great work to all of our award winners, and to each athlete who participated in the Open this year! For yet another year well over half of our gym's community engaged in this event, the world's largest fitness competition, and we couldn't be more proud of the effort of our members, and the support we all showed each other as a collective group. Arena Ready finished as "The Fittest CrossFit Gym in San Francisco" - both officially, thanks to our highest (within the city) cumulative team/affiliate finish in the Open, and un-officially (AKA in my/Sarah's own heart) by largest total participation of athletes. Not too bad for our little community that could!
We also want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to our coaches and athletes who were so instrumental in the success of the challenging 5-week event. From helping set-up logistics for each WOD, to judging for hours on end, to cheering for every athlete (whether entered in the Open or not), to assisting with the sometimes (er, often?) elaborate operations of Cassie's and Sarah's qualifying workouts, you folks were so amazing in every way. We are grateful for such an incredible group of people, and are proud of how much our Arena Ready family cares about one another... the Open is a time of year where that much is very clear.
Here's to attacking the remainder of 2017 surrounded by an awesome group of fit friends!
WOD for 04-10-17:
Push Press:
10 Minutes For a Triple (NOT a 3RM)
No rack - clean the barbell form the floor.
-then-
For Time:
400m Run
40 Push Presses @ 95/65 lbs (no rack)
400m Run
20 Burpee Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups
400m Run
40 Push Presses
400m Run
Saturday Reminders: On-Boarding & Celebrating!
Our 2017 Spring On-Boarding Series for new athletes starts on Saturday with the "Introduction to CrossFit" class starting at 12:45pm. Click here for more information, and then here to sign-up for the free class registration!
Our 2017 End of The Open Get-Together is also happening on Saturday, and will run from 5pm until about 9pm. Click here for more information OR see a coach at the gym on Saturday morning. We hope to see you there!
Happy Weekend, AR Athletes!
WOD for 04-08-17:
2 Rounds For Time, With a Partner:
100 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft
75 Partner Medicine Ball Sit-ups @ 20/14 lbs
50 Calorie Row
25 Power Snatches @ 115/75 lbs
One athlete working at a time. Share/split reps however you like - movements do not have to be evenly split (EXCEPT for the med ball sit-ups which are equally shared).
The Trouble With Triplets
I really liked this recent article from Mike Warkentin for the CrossFit Journal - The Trouble With Triplets.
Click the link above for the entire piece which is a quick and interesting 2-minute read. Here are a couple of excerpts as a preview:
If you get 2 rounds of Nate in 20 minutes, you’re likely missing the point.
The triplet calls for max rounds of 2 muscle-ups, 4 handstand push-ups and 8 kettlebell swings. When performed by a skilled athlete, it’s a challenging test of conditioning in the range of 20 or more rounds.
But if you take 20 minutes to grind through a total of 4 muscle-ups, 8 handstand push-ups and 16 kettlebell swings, you’ve turned a conditioning test into work on gymnastics skills, with 2 irrelevant sets of swings to break things up.
This is not to say it’s stupid to struggle through Nate. Developing athletes can find pride and motivation in putting “Rx” on the board, and sometimes the struggle is worth it. But only sometimes...
... As coaches, you must explain the intent of the workout to your athletes and then scale quickly and competently so they get what they need. That means skillfully programming each workout, deflating the occasional ego in the interests of overall fitness, and backing up your tight triplet with skill work and strength training later in the week as part of well-rounded programming.As athletes, you need to listen to your coaches so you don’t miss the point and turn strength work into conditioning, and vice versa. Lose the ego, scale the workout and hit it hard—then work on your skills and strength at other times...
And, speaking of triplets... Happy Friday!
WOD for 04-07-17:
Skill Focus:
Muscle-up
-then-
AMRAP 10 Minutes:
5 Muscle-ups
10 Hang Power Cleans @ 155/105 lbs
20 Lateral Bar Burpees
Re-Post: Arena Ready Blog Sent To Your Email!
Thanks to Kathryn for the following instructions on how to get the Arena Ready blog posts automatically emailed to you! Get on it so you don't miss the daily WOD and/or gym news that you've been missing:
Today someone mentioned not reading the blog. Gasp! For those of you that don't read it because it's hard to remember to go to a website, you can have it emailed to you automatically!
The blog software puts out a computer-readable feed, called RSS, and you can subscribe to that feed using different apps or services. I use IFTTT ("If this, then that") to link it up to my email. The RSS feed URL is: http://www.arenaready.com/blog?format=RSS
I published the "recipe" so if you sign up for IFTTT you can just add this recipe with your own email address: https://ifttt.com/recipes/400363-arena-ready-blog-to-email
Thanks, Kathryn, for sharing!
WOD for 04-06-17:
Skill Focus:
Pistol
-then-
4 Rounds For Time:
12 Deadlifts @ 225/155 lbs
24 Pistols, alternating
48 Double Unders
Reminder: 2017 Spring On-Boarding Starts This Saturday, April 8th!
Reminder that our 2017 Spring On-Boarding Series for new athletes starts this Saturday (April 8th) at 12:45pm with the FREE "Introduction to CrossFit" class, and continues the following Saturday (April 15th) at 12:45pm with the "Beginner's CrossFit" class.
Click here for last week's post which included some details about the on-boarding process, and click here to sign-up for the free classes through our website (free registration opens one week prior to each class).
Happy Wednesday!
WOD for 04-05-17:
Alternating EMOM For 5 Rounds (25 Minutes):
1) 18/15 Calorie Row
2) 40ft Single Dumbbell "Goblet" Walking Lunges, pick load
3) 12 Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups
4) 200m Run
5) Rest
If you're a ninja at C2B pull-ups then do every round unbroken. Need to up the intensity? Run faster.
Lost & Found Spring Cleaning
It's that quarterly time again - the gym's Lost & Found has reached a point where many of the items feel like they've been unclaimed for some time. Gym clothes, shoes, wrist wraps, un-matched knee sleeves, lifting straps, and water/shaker bottles are some of the items that are currently looking for owners. There are also a few bags of items left throughout the gym that seem like they were intended for exchange but never actually got exchanged (don't worry, we won't donate the puzzles!). The weightlifting shoe cabinets are also accumulating their regular fill of random things that are not actually weightlifting shoes (or neatly kept belts, jump ropes, or non-stinky sleeves). We will consolidate said items in the Lost & Found bin (or next to it) this week so that potential owners can claim their stuff - anything left over at the end of next week will be donated to charity.
Thanks for your attention!
WOD for 04-04-17:
Behind The Neck Strict Press:
5-5-5
For Quality
-then-
Push Jerk:
3-3-2-2-1-1
Climbing as Technique Allows
-then-
AMRAP 3 Minutes:
9 Push Jerks @ 155/105 lbs
9 Box Jumps @ 24/20 in
Rest 4 minutes, then...
AMRAP 3 Minutes:
9 Push Jerks @ 155/105 lbs
9 Box Jumps @ 24/20 in
Use a rack for the push jerks. Set-up your equipment with enough safe space for box jumping clear of your neighbors and dropping/missing the barbell if needed. Be mindful when re-racking the barbell so as not to miss the j-hooks.
Monday Announcements
April Fools WOD
I hope none of you that read the Saturday (April 1st) WOD blog actually thought we'd do that to you, and then stayed home as a result. I was also hoping that the WOD's title being linked to this GIF of Christina Aguilera being all like JUST KIDDING clued you in as well.
Get The Deets For This Saturday
I'm embarrassed that I actually just wrote the word "deets" and it's getting published to the blog that way - not to mention the "being all like" in the paragraph above. Next thing you know I'll be using "sesh" in class - please punch me in the face if I do (you can take this blog post as my consent for you to do so).
Anyhow, the location of the Arena Ready "End of The Open Get-Together" this Saturday (from 5pm to 9pm) is set, so please check the Arena Ready Private Facebook Group (click here) for details. If you're a member at AR and not in the Private Facebook Group please request to be added. If you're not on Facebook then keep fighting the good fight (LOL) and contact me/Sarah for the info, or ask a coach at the gym!
Yoga Returns in May
Yoga classes are currently scheduled to resume in May once Dani returns to the gym. I know that she's looking forward to being back and the feeling is certainly mutual - we miss you, Dani!
The level of awesome in this photo represents much of what the Open is (and should be) about. Thank you, Jenny, for capturing so many incredible moments over the years... thank you Coach Liz, and all of our coaches, for being such strong leaders in this community... and thank you, Yami, and all of our athletes, for making Arena Ready a place where everyone supports one another in the pursuit of being "better than yesterday."
WOD for 04-03-17:
Back Squat:
Six work sets of FOUR reps, as follows:
A) 14 Minutes For...
4-4-4-4 Climbing to a Top Set*
*Add to your top set of SIX from 03-28-17
B) 6 Minutes For...
Two "drop" sets:
1x4 @ 85% of your top set
1x4 @ 80% of your top set
-then-
For Time:
100 Air Squats
30 Power Snatches @ 135/95 lbs
100 Air Squats
(Compare to 05-09-16)
AR End of The Open Get-Together: Sat, April 8th
We'll be having our annual "AR End of The Open Get-Together" next Saturday, April 8th, so please save the date if you're available! A late afternoon/early evening timeframe is generally the preferred schedule so we'll likely keep with that tradition. We're in the process of selecting the exact location and will update you both here and in the Arena Ready private Facebook Group once we've picked the spot (along with the exact start time). It should be good times as always!
Please note the gym will be closed on Sunday (April 2nd) but regular Open Gym will resume the following Sunday (April 9th).
WOD for 04-01-17:
11 Rounds For Time, With a Partner:
35 Thrusters @ 135/95 lbs
100 Double Unders
35 Bar Facing Burpees
100 Calorie Row