Arena Ready Shirts & Hoodies

Arena Ready t-shirts, tanks, and hoodies are officially in the works. There are seven different styles, and a rough idea of each is included below (clockwise from the top left: "Swolemate", "Sarah - #ThePowerOfSHE", "Zip Hoodie", "Raglan Baseball", "Cassie - Dr Ludwig Rx Only", "Athlete in the Arena", "Definition"):

Please click on this survey to indicate your preferences (styles, sizes, etc.).

Styles are subject to change as we tweak & adjust the designs if needed while working with our screen printer, but we wanted to give you an initial idea of what you might be getting ahead of time.

Thanks and feel free to contact us with any questions!

WOD for 04-18-17:

"Flush, Squat, Hold"

ON A RUNNING CLOCK...

A) At 0:00

1600m Run

*You pick the pace.

B) From 10:00 - 30:00

Back Squat:

Six work sets of FOUR reps, as follows:

14 Minutes For...

4-4-4-4 Climbing to a Top Set*

*Add to your top set from 04-11-17

6 Minutes For...

Two "drop" sets:

1x4 @ 85% of your top set

1x4 @ 80% of your top set

C) From 34:00 - 40:00

Weighted Plank Hold:

3 x 0:45 (Rest 1:00 Between Sets)

*Add to your top set from 03-30-17

Monday Motivation: Obsessed Or Dedicated?

"Obsessed" is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated.

Work hard to be better than you were yesterday.  Then cheer on others as they do the same.

Let's crush this week.  Here's your start...

WOD for 04-17-17:

Squat Snatch Triple:

10 Minutes to Establish Loading Heavier Than To Be Used Below (NOT a 3RM).

Touch-and-Go is not required.

-then-

"Cindy Just Calls It a Snatch"

AMRAP 15 Minutes:

3 Rounds of "Cindy"

3 Squat Snatches @ 155/105 lbs

1 Round of "Cindy" is:

5 Pull-ups

10 Push-ups

15 Air Squats

Easter Sunday Schedule

We'll be open with a regular Sunday schedule on Easter (April 16th).  Both Open Gym and Barbell classes will be held as usual, so come in and get your workout on this Sunday morning.

Happy weekend, all!

WOD for 04-15-17:

In Teams of Two, For Time:

800m Run

88 Kettlebell Swings @ 70/53 lbs

600m Run

88 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft

400m Run

88 Burpee Box Jump Overs @ 24/20 in

200m Run

Both athletes run simultaneously (i.e. both athletes complete 800-600-400-200m runs) but the 88 reps of each of the three other movements are shared and can be split in any rep scheme (only one person working at  time).  The KB swings, wall balls, and burpee box jump overs can start as soon as the first athlete completes the preceding run (i.e. teams do NOT have to wait until both athletes have completed the run before starting the next movement). 

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.