We will be camping at the Indian Cove Campground again and this time we have 4 camp sites reserved which can fit 25 people. Space is limited, so sign up in the office now!

The cost is only $5 in advance for the campground. 

You will be responsible for food, water, tents, and buying or renting rock climbing shoes if you wish to climb.  More details will be discussed the week prior to the event.  Please contact us if you have any specific questions or concerns!

To join the Team Paradiso, you need to enter the password, “crossfit”, click HERE to register.  Click HERE to see what you are getting yourself into:)

Each week for five weeks, from February 22nd – March 26th, you will be responsible for completing one workout.  You will log that score into the CrossFit Games website and be ranked worldwide, regionally, by sex and age (for anyone over 45).  Don’t be intimidated!  You all already do this in the gym everyday!

We will be programming the Open Sectional workouts for all classes, every Friday during this five week time frame, so everyone will have a chance to participate no matter what!  Additionally, Friday evening classes will be reserved as the Games Arena, where registered athletes can arrive knowing there will be judges available and top competitors can compete head to head.

You should really do it!  Please contact us if you have any questions!

2010 Sectionals, Ahletes and Judges

Mobility:
Hip Mobility on Box, 2 minutes each leg

Warmup:
15 Overhead Squats
15 GHD Situps
15 Hip Extensions
15 Strict Pullups
15 Push ups
20 Double Unders
25 yard shuttle sprint

Workout of the day:
Eight rounds for time of:
10 Burpees
15 Jumping alternating lunges
20 Double-unders
25 yard Shuttle sprint (5 x 5 yards)
Rest 90 seconds

Rule for the shuttle sprint is that hand must touch the line.

Cool Down:
25 Hollow Rocks
20 GHD Situps
15 Strict Knees to Elbows

Ten years ago and a million miles away

Today will be the first day in a series discussing how my life has changed over the past ten years or so.  Most people assume I have been into fitness and health or an athlete my whole life, but the truth is that I used to be the exact opposite.  Lets take the above photo as an example.  The year was 2002, and I was sitting in a fridge to test out the weight capacity, as we were about to have a gangsta themed 40oz party.  No, the gold tooth wasn’t real, but that cigarette certainly was!  Leading up to the party, I spent hours making invitations, shopping around local outlet stores and costume shops to buy props for the party.  This was what I spent my time and money on, health and fitness didn’t really fit in to my lifestyle.

The truth is that I began writing the story below when I first opened the gym, almost 2 years ago.  I realized that people did not understand how long the process was to reverse years of inactivity.  I had worked for 5 years at that point and was still struggling to perform workouts Rx’d.  I would hear stuff like, “That’s easy for you to say, you’re Mr Fitness, or you’re an athlete!”  If they only knew!  This sentiment and these feelings are what I want to address head on and as honestly as possible.  Most of us need to reverse years of poor posture, eating habits, lack of exercise and proper movement.  We need to face our familial and social traditions and educate ourselves on human physiology and nutrition.  These processes are all essential to making a lasting change to your health and well being and it takes time.  I wrote this because I want you to know that it is possible!  Progress may seem slow, but we really can change!  I hope you enjoy the story…

Getting into the business of changing lives, I had to start with my own. I still worry about a lot of things. I know that I shouldn’t. Take money for instance. The evidence is everywhere, and I have seen enough E! True hollywood stories to know that money is not happiness. But its still this nagging itch that I have never conquered. Growing up, I made the classic assumption that I would somehow be wealthy enough to never need to know anything about budgeting, simple economics or personal finance. Full of optimism and a things will work out because I’m a good person attitude left me broke and directionless (ie, struggling actor) at the age of 25.

I find myself in an interesting position of selling a product to people that I would not have purchased just five years ago. I would not have been able to justify spending $150-200 on a ‘gym membership.’ The amount is certainly nothing to laugh at, but when you prioritize the things you spend money on, it seems obvious that health should be somewhere near the top. Instead, I would justify spending $75 on a night out drinking at least once a week. Somehow the concept that we have only one life to live has not transferred into the notion of taking care of our one body. Listen to what this high school student has to say about their health, “If I want to be physically fit I’ll do it on my own time, maybe when I’m older. Right now I need to focus on my future, not on my body. Thanks.” I used to be this person. Maybe not exactly, but I saw my health as something I would get to eventually, that I was young, I wasn’t overweight and I was having fun. No regrets, funny right.

I can recall trying to convince myself that I had something of a physique when I looked in the mirror, that I had a six pack just under that extra skin if I pulled it down, that I wasn’t that out of shape. That my lifestyle wasn’t the cause for my ever worsening digestive issues. After all, I was going to be rich and famous. I literally believed that it would happen because I was special. In the words of Tyler Durden, “We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.” Hell yeah, I’m pissed off! Are you? Where is the emphasis on health in our education system? It simply doesn’t exist! I went to school in Chicago suburbia and I swear I had one class during one half of my freshman year called health. Think about what they served in your cafeteria. Our PE class had us in the weight room three days a week (only because I was on a sports team, the nonathletic kids didn’t even get that), with little to no instruction about movement and nothing about nutrition. The education part of the class was lost sometime long ago. You didn’t go there to learn anything. Not the way you did to history class or science class anyway.

I was lucky enough to have parents that believed in cooking their own food, but many families are ‘too busy’ to go shopping or prepare their own food. My mom was disgusted by how I loved the Chef Boyardee canned raviolis my friends served me at their homes. I couldn’t put my finger on why it was so delicious, but it just was so different than anything my parents made at home. I had a love affair with Little Debbie snacks. I would come home from school and eat two or three nutty bars or star crunches. My mom would have to hide the boxes from me so they would last for my school lunches. People eat what they think is normal food, with no idea how it affects their bodies. How could they know?

Take all of these factors into play: poor financial responsibility, lack of physical education, delusions of grandeur, and social pressures and you can begin to envision me as a young adult.

Let me explain quickly the life I lived and defended vigorously until about 5 years ago. Socializing was my life. School was a vessel for me to get out of my parents house and party like I had always dreamed. I did just that. Six years as an undergrad, my first semester I received a 0.98, politely asked to leave after my first year, I attended two junior colleges, and finally ended with a degree in Leisure Studies from the University of Illinois at the age of 23. Through it all, I drank and I smoked and I got by, with no plans for where I was going or how it was going to work out. I planned on being a bachelor for life. Traveling the world, bedding beautiful women and at some point I would probably become an actor. Things always just worked out and there was always a funny story to tell. I continued the party after college as I got a job on a cruise ship and eventually ended up in the Virgin Islands for two years. There is no ‘sin tax’ there, so booze and cigarettes are dirt cheap and a fresh batch of willing party goers arrived each week. It was the pinnacle of the life I had been looking for, but reality kept creeping into the back of my mind. What was I going to do for work for the rest of my life? Was I going to continue to scrape by? I needed to finally make my move and prove to everyone how special I was. It was time. I decided to move to LA and put my face in front of the camera. There are a few things that happened along the way here that need to be pointed out, the seeds of my physical fitness journey had been planted. You may have heard these stories before, but just in case, there were two moments within months of each other that opened my eyes to the fact that I needed to start doing something to get in better shape.

The first was an intramural soccer game that my fraternity was playing. They were short of players and needed a few extra people to help out. Since I played soccer all my life up until college, I said I could play. The reality was not pretty. They subbed me in for a player, I ran and chased the ball around for about 5 minutes and puked on the sideline. That was event one. About two months later I was invited to go wake boarding for the first time. Like so many other things I had watched on television, I knew I could do this, the physics made sense and I was a capable individual. Things did not go according to plan. Not only did I barely stand up, but when I did, I was completely out of control. I was an epic failure and the following day, my body was ruined from head to toe. I couldn’t move my arms or make fists, my back was jacked up, my neck was aching from whiplash. That was event two. It suddenly dawned on me that I was going to have to be physically fit in order to achieve the life I had envisioned. That month I began to run and do push ups. Since I was so out of shape, I made a rule for myself, it doesn’t matter if you don’t run very far or if you can’t do that many push ups, but be sure to run one step further each time you run, or do one more push up than the last time and I knew I would get somewhere eventually.

Interesting side note: My roommate at the time was a biochemistry major and made a comment one day as I was doing pushups, that you can build more muscle by working out with shorter rest intervals at higher intensity, typically less than a minute between sets he told me.  Veeery interesting!

That somewhere I ended up being was St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. If you haven’t been there, imagine a few mountaintops sticking out the sea. Beautiful beaches that rise into steep switchback roads and then down again. They have a race called the 8 Tuff miles. It was not something I had any interest in doing, until some girl made a comment about doing it and I drunkenly said, “I should do it too!” The race begins at sea level with a six mile 1000ft climb, and finishes at sea level two again some miles later. Brutal. I had six weeks to train and I had never run more than 3 miles in my life at that point. I ran the hills around my house a couple times a week, before a night out of drinking of course, but I was diligent. When race-day came, I remember passing the 3 mile marker saying I’ve never ran this far before in my life! And I have 5 more miles to go! The girl I was running it with, was saying crazy shit like, “Isn’t this fun!” and “I should come back and run here some other time!” It was miserable, but I made it in under an hour and a half. When I looked back at what I had done, there was this huge sense of accomplishment. Funny right. How obvious. I thought to myself, I can do better than that next year! And so it began, the missing link fell into place. I finally had something to train for. As it happened, I was already planning on moving to LA and so the follow up race was to be a grand trip back to the island.

To be continued…

Mobility:
Bottom of squat, 4 minutes
Keg drill, 2 minutes

Warm-up:
Jog 200 meters
10 Double unders
10 Wall extensions
10 Double unders
10 Wall squats
10 Double unders
10 Light Kettlebell swings
Jog 200 meters

Skill: Practice rope climbs

Workout of the day:
Seven rounds for time of:
15 foot Rope climb, 1 ascent
10 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
15 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 poods
20 Double unders

Cool down:
Calf stretch
Seated pike stretch
Pigeon 

……….GO!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this past weekend’s Shakedown!  It was wrought with judging controversy, over the top enthusiasm, no-reps galore, all kinds of victories peppered with agonizing defeats.  But mostly it was fun as hell!  Competition in all it’s forms teaches us something about ourselves we couldn’t possibly know under “normal” circumstances.  This week as we participate in the Open, there will be no-reps, crazy enthusiasm, PR’s in abundance, breakthroughs, breakdowns, a huge amount of fun, camaraderie, and a whole new level of intensity to what you do everyday.  What are you waiting for?  We are 45 and counting…..sign up here.  

Register for the CrossFit Games Open HERE!  More details below!

Mobility:
Hip Prep
Keg Drill, 2 minutes

Warmup:
Jog 400 meters
10 Front Squats (95/65)
15 GHD Situps
15 Hip Extensions
5 Front Squats (135/95)

Workout of the Day:
Front Squat 3-3-3-3-3

Rest as needed, then perform:
3 Rounds for time of:
Run 100 meters forward
Run 100 meters backward
Rest 60 seconds

Cool Down:
Ankle Mobility, 90 seconds each foot
Foam roll, 2 minutes each leg

Congrats to Lara and Sean D, who placed 2nd at the Valentines Day Massacre last week!

I’m stoked that we have 41 people now signed up for the CrossFit Games Open!  I have received a few questions about how this all works, so I hope this helps!!  If you have any further questions, feel free to post to comments or ask one of the trainers!

What are the workouts going to be?
The workouts are unknown at this point!  The workouts will be released every Wednesday for the next 5 weeks.  The registered athletes are responsible for performing the workout and imputing their scores by the following Sunday.

Where do we perform these workouts?
The workouts are performed in our gym!  We will be programming the CF Games workout of the week for all classes each Friday.  You will be allowed to perform the workout at anytime during the week, as long as you have a judge.

How does the judging work?
Along with the release of the workout each week, standards of movement and judging will be released.  The judging staff will consist of the trainers and assistant trainers.  The easiest way to find a judge is to show up to the ‘CF Games Arena’ on Friday nights from 5:30-8:30.  During those hours, there are guaranteed to be judges available.  For anytime outside those hours, communicate with a coach to determine if a judge will be available.

How will this affect regular class time?
The schedule will stay exactly the same, except our programming will change slightly.  Depending upon available judges and registered athletes in any given class, we may have to perform heats and/or make other changes to the flow of the class to accommodate these athletes.

Forty-Four CrossFit teams consisting of FOUR athletes (2 men, 2 women) will showcase why Southern California is the most hardcore CrossFit region in the world. This is the biggest CrossFit team competition on the planet! Affiliates and sponsors may have more than one team represent their organization. Athletes will compete in three games level team workouts.  WOD’s will be challenging, intense, but most importantly fun. The top 3 finishing teams will earn a podium spot along with the coveted Shakedown trophy & over $3,000 in prizes.

Here are 15 movements that your team should be able to perform but not all of these movements will necessarily be utilized in the event programming.

Mobility:
Tricep mash
10 Wall extensions
Bottom of squat 2 minutes

Warm-up:
Row 150 meters (legs only)
10 Wall squats
Samson stretch, 30 seconds
Row 150 meters (legs and back only, no arms)
10 Wall ball
10 Handstand kick-ups
Row 250 meters, this should be a sprint, followed immediately with 5 wall balls
Samson stretch, 30 seconds

Workout of the day:
For time:
Row 2K
50 Wall-ball shots, 20 pound ball
Row 1K
35 Wall-ball shots, 20 pound ball
Row 500 meters
20 Wall-ball shots, 20 pound ball 

Cool down:
50 Hollow rocks
50 Arch rocks 

Bu’s baaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been out of town for a little over week now, here in the very suburban part of Jacksonville, Florida. My diet of clean and whole foods has been harder to sustain, but not for reasons you would think. Yes, my Grandma is taking great pleasure cooking all my childhood favorites and keeping me full, but luckily, foods indigenous to where my family is from in the Philippines includes dark, leafy greens (saluyot, kangkong, mulunggay) and hearty vegetables (like gourds ampalaya and kalabaza). I’m probably eating more veggies and good fat (lots and lots of fish! Um, hello, the Philippines is an archipelago of 7,000 islands) than I do at home.

While it is my first priority to consume whole, unprocessed food, I feel it is also very important how and where the food is harvested. After careful investigation on the internet, I’ve come to find that there are no Farmer’s Markets in the city, no real way to source local, family farmed products. (There is a community garden, but only open 3 hours a week to the public) So I decided to venture into North Florida’s basic, chain grocery store. Perusing the colorful packaged food aisles, produce section and meat department, I was keen to the marketing tactics and buzzwords that barraged me as a consumer. Being that my former career was in the wholesale produce and specialty imports industries, food systems and the distribution chain from grower to consumer affords me the knowledge to decipher words marketers bombard consumers with in hopes that you’ll buy their product.

Organic-  There are 3 levels of organic as defined by the USDA:

• “100% Organic”: Can only contain organic ingredients, meaning no antibiotics, hormones, genetic engineering, radiation or synthetic pesticides or fertilizers can be used. Can display the USDA organic logo and/or the specific certifying agent’s logo.
• “Organic”: Contains 95% organic ingredients, with the balance coming from ingredients on the approved National List. These products can also display the USDA organic logo and/or the certifier’s logo.
• “Made with Organic Ingredients”: Must be made with at least 70% organic ingredients, three of which must be listed on the package, and the balance must be on the National List. These products may display the certifier’s logo but not the USDA organic logo.

Organic pesticides do exist and are most certainly used in that bunch of asparagus you paid three times as much for at Whole(paycheck) Foods. 

Sustainable/Sustainably Grown- As defined by UC Davis Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Therefore, stewardship of both natural and human resources is of prime importance.  For example, a farmer would plant an acre of grass per acre of grass his cattle grazed, ensuring that the food chain has an equitable balance, ensuring the preservation and sustainability of his industry. Some consumers also extend sustainable production to include fair farm labor practices and animal welfare.

“Local”-  There is no universal defnition of local food, but is comprised of many characteristics outside of just a geographical distance. One prominent example, that is easily accessible to us, is a market where transactions are conducted directly between farmers and consumers (direct-to-consumer), i.e the Farmer’s Market or a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

 Free-Range-  In the United States, USDA regulations apply only to poultry and indicate that the animal has been allowed access to the outside. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) requires that chickens raised for their meat have access to the outside in order to receive the free-range certification. There is no requirement for access to pasture, and there may be access to only dirt or gravel . Free-range chicken eggs, however, have no legal definition in the United States. Likewise, free-range egg producers have no common standard on what the term means. 

Grass-Fed/Pastured- Grass and forage shall be the feed source consumed for the lifetime of the ruminant animal; animals cannot be fed grain or grain byproducts and must have continuous access to pasture during the growing season. Please be aware this standard does not state that the animal should not be given anti-biotics or hormones. Most  major chain stores (ahem, Whole Foods) are marketing their beef products as grass-fed with an asterisk stating that the animal was grained-finished, meaning the last 3 months prior to slaughter, the cattle was fed grain to fatten it up. 

Heritage- Heritage breeds are traditional livestock breeds that were raised by farmers in the past, before the drastic reduction of breed variety caused by the rise of industrial agriculture. Heritage animals were bred over time to develop traits that made them particularly well-adapted to local environmental conditions. Breeds used in industrial agriculture are bred to produce lots of milk or eggs, gain weight quickly, or yield particular types of meat within confined facilities. Heritage breeds are generally better adapted to withstand disease and survive in harsh environmental conditions, and their bodies can be better suited to living on pasture. Buying “heritage” preserves agricultural variety and protects genetic biodiversity.  

 Heirloom- Sustainable farmers who grow heirloom fruits and vegetables help to preserve genetic diversity by ensuring that these unique plant varieties are not completely replaced by the few commercial varieties that are mass-produced by industrial agriculture.

PCF GRASS-FED MEAT PROGRAM 

PCF has long supported ethical, organic, grass-fed farmer Grassland Beef for our meat needs. As a PCF member, you have a 15% discount of your entire order. Just go to www.grasslandbeef.com, create your order cart, print out cart page (DO NOT SUBMIT ORDER), take off 15% off your total, bring in print out and cash/check for the total discounted amount into the office and your order of meat should arrive within the week. It’s that simple.

PCF WEEKLY PRODUCE PROGRAM

Every week since January 2010, the gym has offered weekly produce delivery. We were fortunate enough to partner with Gloria Tamai of Tamai Farms, located in Oxnard. While she is not organic certified (the USDA has made it very expensive and difficult for family farms to get certified), I know Gloria is organic and sustainable by practice, which in my opinion means more than some definition created to suit the needs of chemical and pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists. Tamai Farms is a short 60 miles north of the gym- HOW’S THAT FOR A CARBON FOOT PRINT?! $25/$13 for a full/half order of seasonal produce. Sign up by Sunday evening on the white board for Wednesday delivery. Cash/Check only racket, right Martina?   

If you want to rap with me on how your food choices impact your body or the earth, stop me when you see me in the gym or drop me a line (lauren@sweetassassin.com).

BRUSSEL SPROUTS WITH CHESTNUT BROWN BUTTER 

Mobility:
DROM
Shoulder Prep

Warm up:
Burgener Warm up
10 Bar taps
10 Split cleans with light dumbbells
10 Strict Pull ups
20 Walking Lunges

“Erin”
Five rounds for time of:
40 pound Dumbbells split clean, 15 reps
21 Pull-ups

Cool down:
Quad on wall, 1 minute per leg
Active bar hang

Light weight!  (Quite literally)

The Finding it in Others series came about when my friend and co-owner of CrossFit Pacific Coast, Eric Malzone asked me if I wanted to guest program 1 week for their box.  I said it would be an honor, but only on the condition that he compose 3 guest posts for me, and of any topics of my choosing.  The first post dealt with advice for beginners, and for this second one, I asked him how changes in nutrition, especially Paleo/Zone style, affects life both inside and outside the gym.  His tale begins with the usual fare, but grows and evolves into something much more staggering.

I always tell athletes, especially those beginning to give serious consideration to their nutrition, the biggest spike I see in performance is when somebody dials in their diet.  Athletes report that they recover faster, they resolve stubborn respiratory issues, they lose chronic pain and aches, and have that “extra gear” in a metcon,  etc. etc.
 
On a macro level, the discipline that is necessary and acquired during a nutritional shift reaches into all other aspects of their life.  When I did my first nutritional challenge with LaLanne Fitness in San Francisco, I wrote on their blog that I was worried my friends wouldn’t want to hangout with me anymore if I followed the Zone diet. 

People thought it was hilarious but the funny thing was that I wasn’t joking.  People will undoubtedly project their lack of knowledge and discipline onto those who are taking control of their health…whether you make it public or not.  I do believe that social aspect is one of the most difficult components of making the initial shift, but once an individual rises above that, they are in a position to significantly improve the quality of their life.

As far as life in general, I’d like to share a story about my brother, Chris… 

Chris is 7yrs older then me and has always been highly active and taken pride in his level of fitness.  He was an All-American swimmer at Long Beach State and has competed in numerous triathlons.  It’s always pissed me off at the ease with which he could lean out whenever he wanted. 

On another note, Chris has also had a lifetime of gastrointestinal issues.  After he hit 30, they got increasingly more frequent and severe.  In 2001, he traveled to South Africa (he does a tremendous amount of international work travel) and came home with the worst case of food poisoning he’s ever had.  Trip after trip, the issues got worse and worse upon his return home.  Like all Malzone men, he had issues with an overactive mind, which also led to bouts of insomnia.  At that time, he didn’t see any relation between the insomnia and digestive issues.

By the time Chris hit 40, the insomnia had become an issue that needed to be dealt with.  He started to self-medicate with Tylenol PM on a regular enough basis that it eventually became ineffective.  Chris then went to a doctor who, over a span of a year, prescribed numerous sleep-aids including but not limited to, Ambien and Lunesta.  Once those become ineffective, the doctor start prescribing anti-anxiety medications simply because they came with the side effect of increased sleepiness.  While he was on Lunesta, Chris’s wife found out that he was sleep walking and mixing cocktails of sleep-aids in the bathroom in the middle of the night.  Chris had no recollection of this, but it’s every bit as dangerous as it sounds (think Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson).

At this point Chris was stuck in a cycle of anxiety and depression that severely impacted his relationship with his wife, kids, our parents, his work and his siblings.  At one point, he went on a 2-week work trip to Brazil and came back 25 pounds lighter due to lack of sleep and poor nutrition.  He was also registering suicidal thoughts on a frequent basis.

Enough was enough.  He went and saw a new doctor in San Luis Obispo that was famous for his diagnosis and he told Chris to
immediately stop seeing his current doctor, clear out his medicine cabinet, and go see another doctor for some testing.

Fearing for his life and his family, he followed the doctor’s directions to the word and went through 5 of the most difficult days of his life.  The withdrawals were severe and he didn’t sleep more then 6 hours over that 5-day period.

When the clouds lifted, he called and set up an appointment for an ALCAT test.  When he went in, his blood pressure was 150/95, his resting heart rate was 72, and his cholesterol was 425 (LDL through the roof).  The testing revealed that he was intolerant to high glycemic foods.  He’d heard me talk many times about Paleo and decided to cut grains, gluten, and sugar out of his diet completely. 

The difference was immediate and drastic!  4 weeks later he went in for another blood test in which he found that his BP was 120/70, his RHR was 58, and cholesterol was 180.  These numbers are almost identical to mine. 

Since the dietary changes were made, Chris has reestablished strong relationships with his family and wife, accepted a promotion to Vice President of his company, and most of all, is happy and fun to be with.  He’s sleeps most nights soundly and in a deep R.E.M. state.

In his own words, he admits that if he stayed on that path, he would probably be divorced, in a mental institution, dead…or all three. 

If you don’t think food matters, think again
 
Eric Malzone Owner CrossFit Pacific Coast, Inc. Santa Barbara, CA

Post thoughts to comments.  And coming soon, the return of the 201.