You've got 10 KB Swings to go in your 2nd round of HELEN. Hold ON! You can finish the set. Don't listen to the voices inside your head. DO NOT STOP! YOU can do this. Just stay focused and keep breathing. You have found the "REDZONE". This is where we are tested mentally and physically. Finding your limits, means looking for the edge. Percevere. Discover new capacity. Do MORE! We must be better than yesterday.

Workout of the Day
"Fight Gone Bad!"
Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

"A goal is a dream with a deadline." -Napoleon Hill

The GHD sit-up was once a gym staple. In the gym today only rarely will someone be found doing other than back extensions on the GHD. In no small measure the decline of the GHD or roman chair sit-up coincided with the advent of the crunch. The crunch came to fashion on warnings and claims in popular media of the traditional sit-up’s destructive impact on the back.

It was argued that the GHD style sit-up’s primary movers were the hip flexors and not the abs and consequently this sit-up, and sit-ups like it, were actually not good abdominal exercises. It was further argued that recruiting the hip flexors to lift the torso was destructive to the lumbar spine.

Once every couple of years we get lucky and find an exercise physiologist to repeat this message of poor ab recruitment and lower back destruction standing in front of the GHD apparatus. What we do is ask them to mount the GHD and perform a set of thirty sit-ups for us while rehashing the poor recruitment claim.

The fun comes the following day when the report comes back from the exercise scientist that they are almost too sore to sit upright. Laughing, walking, standing, and moving are all excruciating. Where are they hit? The abs. -Glassman

...........

Workout of the Day
"TABATA SOMETHING ELSE"
Tabata interval for reps:
Pull-ups
Push-ups
Sit-ups
Squats

"My greatest satisfaction comes when my students find the success they never thought they could have." -Addie Rhodes Lee

"The squat is essential to your well-being. The squat can both greatly improve your athleticism and keep your hips, back, and knees sound and functioning in your senior years. Not only is the squat not detrimental to the knees it is remarkably rehabilitative of cranky, damaged, or delicate knees. In fact, if you do not squat, your knees are not healthy regardless of how free of pain or discomfort you are. This is equally true of the hips and back. The squat is no more an invention of a coach or trainer than is the hiccup or sneeze. It is a vital, natural, functional, component of your being. The squat, in the bottom position, is nature’s intended sitting posture (chairs are not part of your biological make-up), and the rise from the bottom to the stand is the biomechanically sound method by which we stand-up. There is nothing contrived or artificial about this movement. Most of the world’s inhabitants sit not on chairs but in a squat. Meals, ceremonies, conversation, gatherings, and defecation are all performed bereft of chairs or seats. Only in the industrialized world do we find the need for chairs, couches, benches, and stools. This comes at a loss of functionality that contributes immensely to decrepitude. Frequently, we encounter individuals whose doctor or chiropractor has told them not to squat. In nearly every instance this is pure ignorance on the part of the practitioner. When a doctor that doesn’t like the squat is asked, “by what method should your patient get off of the toilet?” they are at a loss for words. In a similarly misinformed manner we have heard trainers and health care providers suggest that the knee should not be bent past 90 degrees. It’s entertaining to ask proponents of this view to sit on the ground with their legs out in front of them and then to stand without bending the legs more than 90 degrees. It can’t be done without some grotesque bit of contrived movement. The truth is that getting up off of the floor involves a force on at least one knee that is substantially greater than the squat. Our presumption is that those who counsel against the squat are either just repeating nonsense they’ve heard in the media or at the gym, or in their clinical practice they’ve encountered people who’ve injured themselves squatting incorrectly. It is entirely possible to injure yourself squatting incorrectly, but it is also exceedingly easy to bring the squat to a level of safety matched by walking. In the accompanying article we explain how that is done. On the athletic front, the squat is the quintessential hip extension exercise, and hip extension is the foundation of all good human movement. Powerful, controlled hip extension is necessary and nearly sufficient for elite athleticism. “Necessary” in that without powerful, controlled hip extension you are not functioning anywhere near your potential. “Sufficient” in the sense that everyone we’ve met with the capacity to explosively open the hip could also run, jump, throw, and punch with impressive force. Secondarily, but no less important, the squat is among those exercises eliciting a potent neuroendocrine response. This benefit is ample reason for an exercise’s inclusion in your regimen." -Greg Glassman


SQUAT clinic.

How to Squat
Here are some valuable cues to a sound squat:

1. Start with the feet about shoulder width apart and slightly toed out.
2. Keep your head up looking slightly above parallel.
3. Don’t look down at all; ground is in peripheral vision only.
4. Accentuate the normal arch of the lumbar curve and then pull the excess arch out with the abs.
5. Keep the midsection very tight.
6. Send your butt back and down.
7. Your knees track over the line of the foot.
8. Don’t let the knees roll inside the foot.
9. Keep as much pressure on the heels as possible.
10. Stay off of the balls of the feet.
11. Delay the knees forward travel as much as possible.
12. Lift your arms out and up as you descend.
13. Keep your torso elongated.
14. Send hands as far away from your butt as possible.
15. In profile, the ear does not move forward during the squat, it travels straight down.
16. Don’t let the squat just sink, but pull yourself down with your hip flexors.
17. Don’t let the lumbar curve surrender as you settle in to the bottom.
18. Stop when the fold of the hip is below the knee – break parallel with the thigh.
19. Squeeze glutes and hamstrings and rise without any leaning forward or shifting of balance.
20. Return on the exact same path as you descended.
21. Use every bit of musculature you can; there is no part of the body uninvolved.
22. On rising, without moving the feet, exert pressure to the outside of your feet as though you were trying to separate the ground.
23. At the top of the stroke stand as tall as you possibly can.

Watch VIDEO

Workout of the Day
"KAREN"
For time:
150 Wall Balls(#20)

"The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them." Stephen King

There's nothing like a relay race to jack up the intensity of a class. They're split into pairs, lined up ...3, 2, 1 GO! This is just one way we use collective energy to work together, help one another and push ourselves. Remember when you were in grade school and the spirit of competition was natural. Coaches and teachers supported your participation in team sports, playground games, relay RACES and after school programs because it was good, clean, healthy FUN! Those fond memories all come back to you when ready at the starting line in front of LALANNE FITNESS. Everyday I am thrilled to see how this spirit amongst our students drives results. The great part about it is, you don't even think about the increased INTENSITY and energy output until you're huffing and puffing, out of breathe. Our gym is an adult playground. It's fun... It's exciting...It's CrossFit!

"In implementation, CrossFit is, quite simply, a sport—the “sport of fitness.” We’ve learned that harnessing the natural camaraderie, competition, and fun of sport or game yields an intensity that cannot be matched by other means. The late Col. Jeff Cooper observed that “the fear of sporting failure is worse than the fear of death.” It is our observation that men will die for points. Using whiteboards as scoreboards, keeping accurate scores and records, running a clock, and precisely defining the rules and standards for performance, we not only motivate unprecedented output but derive both relative and absolute metrics at every workout; this data important value well beyond motivation." -Greg Glassman

Workout of the Day
"HEATHER"
Three rounds for time:
Row 500 meters
12 Deadlifts(#225)
21 Ring Dips

"If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think." -Oprah Winfrey

Do you have goals? Even if you do...take a moment to think about what these mean to you. When setting goals, I urge you to consider the fact that it's not about what you look like, it's about what you can do. Are your goals physical or superficial, athletic or asthetic? Form follows function, so... if you want to look like an athlete, you must train like one. Now that we understand this, the only way to improve physically is to set goals. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here's a few of mine: 1. 15 Double-Unders (no miss). 2. 30 Muscle-Ups under 5 minutes 3. 150 KB Swings (2 pood) under 10 minutes. Ok, If you are still unsure about what you are capable of... I have a plan for you! Regardless of your current level of fitness and skill, I want you to visit our SKILL LEVELS page. Pick 2-3 movements or exercises each week and focus your efforts on improving them. Record the results of your performances, then pick new ones the following week. For example; begin with ROWING and SQUATS. Row 500 meters as fast as possible one day, then do as many squats as possible in 2 minutes the next. Challenge yourself, YOU are only as good as your last performance!


Goal oriented people.

Workout of the Day
"The HAMMER"
For time:
150 Barbell Thrusters (95 lbs.)

"No, it doesn't get any easier, you wouldn't want it to either." Greg Glassman

Our most consistent, hard working student of the week is Joel. Joel is a former competitive track & field athlete specializing in the "Hammer Throw". His physical condition has improved dramatically since beginning CrossFit, adding to the existing strength and power he already had from years of competition and olympic style weightlifting. I believe he is ready to take the next step towards elite fitness. This will require him to make nutrition (the foundation of athlete development) a priority, it's the only thing holding him back from greatness! Journaling will allow him to track his progress, hold himself accountable and make it happen!

Workout of the Day
"FILTHY FIFTY"
For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

"One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes." -Benjamin Disraeli

Welcome... to all of you motivated fresh faces!

A recent photo is evidence of the growth at LALANNE FITNESS. It is also a testament to the diversity of the students and the collectivity within the community! The increasing attendance in our classes has created more productivity, excitement and electricity in the air. Strength in numbers, is very real. It is the power of a team or group of individuals which has a sum greater that their parts. Amazing team-work, comaradrie and accomplishment continue to be the cornerstones in this 'School of Elite Fitness'.

Workout of the Day
For time:
Run 800 meters
50 Wall Balls
Row 500 meters
50 Wall Balls
Run 800 meters

"Real magic in relationships means an absence of judgment of others." -Wayne Dyer