Are You Ignorant When It Comes to the Deadlift? When Rip speaks, page you listen.   Ignite the Fire by Katie Hogan.  Nice article about mental preparations for competition.  This applies really nicely to 1 Rep Max (1RM) attempts.  Any time your going to move more weight, more about or go faster, than you ever have in your life, you need to get in the right place in your head.  How you do that is up to you, but you need to know how YOU do it.  I hope that makes sense…     Forwards or backwards? Workout of the Day   Strength Deadlift Find your 1RM   Metcon 50 Double Unders 10 Burpees 40 Double Unders 10 Burpees 30 Double Unders 10 Burpees 20 Double Unders 10 Burpees 10 Double Unders 10 Burpees Double Under Sub is 2 for 1 singles, 1 for 1 backwardsRead more

FYI – CrossFit Oakdale will be attempting 1 Rep Max (1RM) for the deadlift on Thursday.  I’ll review my rules for 1RM attempts and sessions tomorrow, page but I wanted to give you a heads up.  My rules for 1RM, # order especially on the deadlift is simple: Be smart.  If you lose a good lumbar curve, the lift is done.  More tomorrow.   We’ll be using the deadlift 1RM to establish percentages that we’ll be lifting off for the coming months.   5 Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012 from the Harvard Business Review.  The 5 things the writer recommends are WAAAY harder to stop doing then they sound, especially when we respond to text messages like trained dogs.  Ever watch a TV show or movie, and the phone vibration goes off on the screen and EVERYONE watching looks at their phone?   Have you pushed the sled...Read more

What If The Secret to Success is Failure? from the New York Times.  Really interesting piece on education from the NYT.  I found the administrator’s observations on testing to be profound: IQ tests reward those that test well, # and have nearly no regard for the hard worker.  But in life, the hard worker is the one that is rewarded.  Most of the time anyway.  Randolph believes the essential trait is not something easily tested: Character.   Freddy C sort of tackles this question from a CrossFit angle.  What wins out: good numbers or talent. Probably lots of both, right?  But in the end, when everybody is really good, it’s the athletes character that reveals the champions.  The ability, or even the desire, to push when you’re tired, uncomfortable, scared, nervous, whatever, reveals the true character.  CrossFit just creates a small version of this, every time you walk through the...Read more

Happy New Year!  I want to go on the record: I do the programming for the gym on Sunday mornings, there and I had Fran written down before CrossFit.com dropped it on us.  Is there a better way to ring in the new year?   Nutrition Seminar.  CrossFit Oakdale will be hosting a Nutrition Seminar on Tuesday, site January 10th at 6:30pm.  The Seminar will be about 1 hour long, unhealthy depending on questions.  We will review basic nutrition tenets: Macro nutrients, the Zone, Paleo/Whole Foods, and eating for performance.  This will be basic stuff, but I highly encourage everyone to attend, especially more experienced Athletes.  I would love to hear the nutrition stories of experienced Athletes to share with our newer Athletes.  Sometimes the questions and interactions open up so much more good information and experiences.  On that Tuesday, CFO will have classes at 4:30 and 5:30pm, so no...Read more

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