Michael Aaron

CFM 2.0

We’re already getting a facelift! This weekend we’ll be knocking down a few walls in order to expand the gym floor and install a new pull up cage with squat racks, dip stands and more rings… as well as a few other improvements. We’ll still have Saturday morning classes at 10 and 11, but they’ll be outside, so come prepared for some fun with tires and sledgehammers!!!

Hooverball Sundays

Weekly Hooverball continues Sunday at the Piedmont Park active oval. Be there by 10 am to help claim a court. You can parallel park on Piedmont, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, or in the deck (access off Monroe). Come out and play!

Whole Life Challenge registration is open!

Team CFM already has 9 Whole Life Challengers! Dyer, Bri, Brianne, Laura S, Uran, Vabs, Courtney, Jeremy and Lis are in the game. Who else is joining us? Register here.
Courtney is hard at work getting prizes donated, and most of the cash you pay for entry fee also goes into the prize pool! There will be several winners in different categories, so don’t let the fear of strict paleo deter you. The prizes for the overall winners will be AWESOME, but there will also be schwag for most improvement on the WLC WOD, most inches lost, most inches gained (for those wishing to bulk up), most accountable, best sponsor/support crew, AND … there will even be a special division for your coaches – CFM’s coaches and Instructor Training Program members will all be competing for prizes and bragging rights in their own division.

So what’s holding you back? No, wait, let me guess…
TOP 5 weak-sauce excuses heard recently from WLC haters:
1. I dont keep strict paleo, nor really aspire to.
Well la-di-da. This challenge is not just about strict paleo. It’s about creating healthy habits of mobility, exercise, supplements, accountability, AND nutrition.
2. It’s football season.
Unless you’re following high school, pop warner and the MAC, there is not football seven days a week. So you lose some points on the day your team plays (or maybe you behave and lose points only for the big games)… get your exercise and mobility work in before the tailgate party/game, and get nutrition back on track the next day.
3. I have a wedding/vacation/birthday/bachelor party during the Challenge.
So lose points those days. And get back on track after the big event. This Challenge is about creating new habits IN YOUR LIFE. These events will continue to come up, and if you can get through them and get back on track with nutrition and exercise now, it’s good training for when these events come up after the challenge.
4. I’m not going to enter because I never win this type of stuff.
There will be lots of prizes. And if the only prize you win is a sick new body and some healthy new habits, well then, uh… that’s cool too, right?
5. I don’t need to get lean. I want to get JACKED.
We’ll be giving prizes to people who gain muscle and inches as well as those who lose inches.

Mark your calendars:
Saturday, September 8 at noon- WLC Pre-Challenge Huddle
Friday, September 14- WLC Eve Not-Paleo Potluck
Saturday, September 15- WLC Prelims
Friday, October 12- Paleo Potluck
Saturday, November 10- WLC Finals, Awards Ceremony and Finals Party

Welcome to new intern and Instructor Training Program member Courtney and her husband James!

Workout of the Day

If it’s your first class of the week: Warm Up & retest Baseline

5 Rounds for time:
7 handstand push ups
14 pistols
21 double unders or 100 singles

*This is a challenging WOD with some advanced skills. Do as much as you can, with a goal to improve/progress at these movements when we retest this WOD again next quarter.

Whole Life Challenge registration opens Wednesday!

The Whole Life Challenge is an 8-week health and fitness challenge designed to turn you into a lean, mean master of your physical and mental destiny! The WLC started at CrossFit Los Angeles a year and a half ago, but this time, CFMers will be playing along with thousands of other CrossFitters around the world!

Entry Fee: $45 for everyone–all members, friends, and family.
Prelims: Saturday, September 15th
Finals: Saturday, November 10th
Registration: You can register online at http://www.wholelifechallenge.com starting TOMORROW!
Friends & Family may play along with you, but you must be registered first to invite them to join.

The challenge winner will succeed in 3 areas:
Performance – Improve your work, improve your play
Body Transformation– Get lean & mean
Accountability – Play every day!

How to play:
You’ll be measured in the beginning and the end of the challenge to track your improvement – body and performance.
Every day you will be challenged to live by these rules, and earn up to 6 points daily:
Nutrition – No grains or starches (including corn and soy), no sugar (artificial or natural), no alcohol, soda or juice, no legumes, no dairy and no artificial or processed foods. You can earn up to 3 points maximum for each day of nutrition. Violate one of your rules and subtract 1 point. The lowest score you can get on any day is 0.
Workout – Every day. The rule is 10 minutes minimum, and you get to say if it was a workout for you. Active recovery (yoga, hiking, recovery ride, run or row) counts. You will receive 1 point for working out.
Mobilization – Stretch daily, 10 minutes minimum. You can do this any way you want. You will receive 1 point for stretching/mobilizing.
Fish oil – A daily dose of fish oil. There is no minimum, but research suggests 4000mg combination of EPA/DHA per day.

Every day by 3pm you’ll log into the scoreboard and report how you did the previous day. You have until 3pm each day; after that you receive a 0 for the prior day, so set an alarm, leave yourself a post-it… whatever you have to do to make it a habit!

All participants in the challenge receive:
+ Access to the Whole Life Challenge WORLDWIDE online scoreboard
+ A “Pre-Game Huddle” seminar – Want to give yourself the best shot? Come to a 1-hour meet-up to cover the basics of setting yourself up: preparing your home and kitchen, shopping and preparing food, and other success strategies
+ Mid-challenge paleo potluck party
+ Access to the Whole Life Challenge blog with coaching, support, recipes and videos
+ Access to the Whole Life Challenge discussion forums to chat w other WLCers, share experiences, successes, breakdowns, tips, “cheats” and to lend and give support
+ Pre and post challenge measurements and workout scores
+ A post-challenge celebration!

CASH & PRIZES for Winners!

Quarterly Check-In Week kicks off with a doozy.

Workout of the Day

If it’s your first class of the week: Warm Up & retest Baseline
OLYMPIC TOTAL: In 15 minutes, work to a Snatch one rep max. Then, in 15 minutes, work to a Clean & Jerk one rep max.
CASH OUT:2:00 plank hold in each position – center, left, right

Quarterly Check-In Week

I can’t believe CFM has already been open THREE MONTHS! Time has flown, and I’ve loved getting to know all of our students, seeing athletes make progress in the gym and watching the community grow. Three months in means it’s time for our FIRST EVER Quarterly Check-In Week.
One week each quarter, we hold quarterly check-ins. We’ll spend 10 minutes at the beginning of every class taking time to reflect on the past three months and set new goals for the upcoming quarter. We’ll also retest the Baseline WOD you did at your intro, test some benchmark WODs and work on skills that we’ll revisit during the next Quarterly Check-In week.
Use this week to look back and celebrate your accomplishments over the last three months. Give yourself a pat on the back. Many of you just started CrossFit in the last three months. That alone is a HUGE accomplishment!
This week you’ll also look ahead to the stronger, healthier athlete you plan to be in three months. Set goals and write action steps toward becoming that person. So get to the box this week and bring your A-GAME!!!

Whole Life Challenge registration opens Wednesday!

It just so happens that our next Quarterly Check-In week culminates with the Whole Life Challenge (WLC) finals. Registration for WLC opens Wednesday. Get in the game! Family and friends can play too. The Whole Life Challenge starts Saturday, September 15th with prelims when we’ll test a WOD and take measurements. In the eight weeks that follow, everyone will get awesomer at life as we log points daily based on exercise, mobility, nutrition, supplements and additional challenges. And on November 10th, we’ll have FINALS when we retest the prelims WOD, take final measurements AND GIVE OUT CASH & PRIZES for winners in several categories. More on that tomorrow…get excited!

Sam knocking out muscle-ups during Friday’s WOD: Amanda. Sam departs Sunday for Virginia Tech. He’s been a HUGE help at CFM as our summer intern, and we’ll miss him dearly. Thanks for everything, Sam. See you at Thanksgiving!

Workout of the Day

Warm Up & retest Baseline
STRENGTH: Take 10 minutes to find your 1RM weighted pull up.
TEST: For time –
250m row
15 KB swings 2/1.5 pood
25 burpees
15 KB swings 2/1.5 pood
250m row

Athlete Profile: Monica Miller

Hometown: Ruskin, Fl (Only Lis knows where this is)
Age: 38….39 I was 38 when I started filling this out. Just found it in my drafts folder.
Occupation: Clinical Hypnotherapist, Massage Therapist….and Yoga Instructor!
When did you first start CrossFitting?:Sept 12, 2008
Favorite WOD: Any without Running
Least Favorite WOD: Any with Running. I effing hate running.
Three words to describe you: Patient, Curious, Smartass
Tell us about your sports & fitness background:
Never played sports, always active, not consistent with exercise. Until crossfit.
How did you first get exposed to CrossFit? Take us back to your first WOD… what was it, and how did it feel?
My friends opened a crossfit and wanted to trade massage for ass whooping. Don’t remember the first, except that it was 10min long. My 2nd time I asked my coach “Can I really get in shape doing a 10min workout?” So we did a 4min squat tabata. I quit at 3 minutes. I stalled my car 4 times on the way home due to my shaky jelly legs. I kept my mouth shut after that.
What sort of changes have you seen in your body, health and fitness since starting CF (before/after)?
I’m faster, stronger, more agile, not afraid of anything thrown out there, I. will. always. finish. (maybe not first, but I don’t quit) I was never an athlete. I am now.
What sort of changes in your life have you experienced out of taking on something like CrossFit that were totally unexpected?
Coordination, an ass (never had one til squats), really really liking the gym, and hearting Oly Lifting foreva. OH, OH! annnd Having a HUGE client base from Crossfitters all over the city! Totally Completely U N E X P E C T E D!!!
Please share with us any favorite CrossFit / CFM moments:
The opening day WOD at CFM 🙂
Any advice for people just getting started?
Don’t stop. Just don’t. And, it’s ok to Crossfit your way. You don’t have to be all crazy on the Koolaid, compete, eat strict paleo… It’s ok. Do Crossfit in a way that best suits you. Go all crazy nuts with it, come 3 times a week and give your all, come once a week and mix it with other activities, whatever. Just don’t quit.
What are your hobbies, interests and/or talents outside of CrossFit?
Travel–my truest passion, I saved all year to leave for a month this fall, and I plan to go for a month every fall from now on. Cello, Yoga…
What did you eat today?
Coffee (w raw local honey, and organic soy creamer…hush Lis), wild caught salmon patty w tons o butter, free range chicken sausage w organic grape tomatoes, spinach and artichoke hearts, cream of kale soup, 85% dark chocolate, Crock pot turkey thighs w onion and carrots, 85% dark chocolate, 85% dark chocolate, 85% dark chocolate. What?
Do you follow the paleo or primal lifestyle? What is your nutrition philosophy?
I guess it’s Primal since I have full fat dairy and some sugar. I avoid grain crap. Rice, pasta, bread, any gluten junk. I stay pretty clear of legumes, but sometimes have them (room clearers those are). I eat pretty clean, I’m not a freak about it, but it feels so much better not to have gluten, crap sugar, and really too much dairy in my diet. I enjoy food, but I’m picky, I hate cheap processed slop and require higher quality. That cheap factory farm stuff tastes bad to me. You outta see me scalp a pizza. Mmmm just the sauce, meat and cheeese!

Workout of the Day

Deadlift: 3 sets of 10, Rest 3:00
Time Trial: Row 2000 meters

Food as Fuel

Need some help with your nutrition but don’t know where to start? Or do you just have some questions about pre/post WOD nutrition? Or supplements?
If so, be at the box Saturday at noon for CFM’s next Food as Fuel class. We’ll discuss the basics of the paleo lifestyle, review food logs and answer questions. If you plan to attend, email Alicia to get your food journal and complete it by Saturday.

Hooverball

Hooverball is Sunday. Be there. Anyone is welcome…you don’t have to be a CFM member to join in the awesome. Come out to play! If you’ve never played, we’ll teach you. 10 am. Sunday. Piedmont Park sand volleyball courts.

Quarterly Check-Ins

All next week during the first 10 minutes of class, we’ll be doing our first ever Quarterly Progress Checks…this is your chance to reflect on the past quarter, set new goals for the next few months, and retest the Baseline WOD to see your progress. Make sure you get to the box next week to participate. We’ll also be testing several other benchmark WODs next week, so don’t miss it!
The 10am half of the 31 Heroes crew: FRONT L-R – James & Courtney M, Arielle, Matt C; BACK L-R – Nina, Don, Adrian, John H, Vabs and Dyer. Welcome to all the new faces!!!

Workout of the Day

Front squat: 3 sets of 10, Rest 3:00
20 min AMRAP: 5 wall balls 20/14, 7 burpees