Category Archives: Crossfit Workouts

Yay, I was nominated!!… →

…for VERSATILE BLOGGER by the one, the only, the LOVELY…SheShredss!

Thank you lovely :)

To continue this fun little game and properly follow the rules, I need to, and will GLADLY answer 7 random facts about myself:

1) I can make three loops in my tongue!

2) I have my motorcycle license, and used to own a Kawasaki Ninja 250 with a hot pink helmet ;) Anything with a small engine pretty much, I can tear it up on. I prefer four wheelers and snowmobiles though. I’m from Northern Maine…I’m a country girl :-p

3) I love brushing my teeth in the shower…there is nothing better than an icy cool mouth in a hot steamy shower :)

4) I love reading marriage books…specifically Christian marriage books…couldn’t tell ya…

5) I, at one point, had FIRE ENGINE RED hair and BRIGHT GREEN contacts…it was in college, during my “punk phase”.

6) I have never been to Europe…in today’s world, this is an odd fact.

7) Je parle en peu francaise :-p

So now I get to nominate 15 versatile bloggers of my own!!

The lucky bloggers are…in no particular order…

KelsalynnFitLog

Sozo Life

Tales of me and the husband

Two red birthstones

Create something out of nothing

150 years young

Jessica Stephen

nomnom paleo

paleomg

everyday paleo

Bonfire Health

The Blog of Santa Barbara Family Chiropractic

Mark’s Daily Apple

The Clothes Make the Girl

Sweet Cheeks

Thank you to all these blogs for constantly providing knowledge, tips to make my (and everyone else’s) life easier, joy and entertainment, beauty, words of wisdom, recipes, and words of comfort and understanding. You all inspire every day :)

Have a wonderful day!! xoxo

Jen

Crossfit Trainer??

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts, Move Well, Think Well and tagged with , ,

I just wanted to say thank you to Nicole for keeping me on my toes and calling me out on my absent ways :)

“How did {the Crossfit cert} go?”

Well…

WE ALL PASSED!!!

 

I sat down Monday morning (LAST Monday morning) to write about the weekend for all of you, and what happened is I just sat staring at my laptop screen for an hour with TOO much to say…so naturally, I said nothing. To recap the weekend, I’m going to bullet-ize it for you:

- Got to be coached by Katie Hogan and Jason Khalipa! It was so neat to be trained and coached by people who both Nick and myself admire as athletes, so much. Also, it was so great to be able to watch them be coaches (they are PHENOMINAL coaches…) and hear their thought processes while they’re training athletes and learn from them :) You guys rocked!

-We did FRAN the first night…did it in 7:30 (but finished in 8 something…took me a MINUTE to do my last pull-up…). Now, I need to stay on this for a second; this was the first time EVER that I have done Fran WITHOUT a band, and the pull-up bar was FOREIGN to me, and probably twice as thick as the bars at our gym. So even if this was my worst Fran time yet…it was a PR in a way for me :-p  China killed it though :) Something like 5:50!! Animal!

-Met and was coached by the first “kid” to go through Crossfit Kids…: Conner Martin; He is the eldest son of the creators of Crossift Kids,  Jeff and Mikki Martin. Super nice guy, and super impressive coach…he was certified as a trainer at the ripe old age of 12…seriously.

-I met a reader of my blog!! So neat to meet and chat with people who have randomly stumbled across my blog and enjoy reading it :) So nice to meet you Brittany!! :)

-The ride there was interesting…China, Dannielle and I drove down together to San Diego, while the guys left together. They literally left about 10 minutes before us, and got there 3 hours before we did…you do the math… Let’s just say that by the end of the ride, us ladies were completely delirious, and could do nothing but laugh till the point of tears when Nick’s directions led us to the middle of a cemetary…Who knew that there is both a Camino PUERTA and a Camino HUERTA in the SAME zip code…who knew… :-p

-I feel closer to my coworkers than ever before; it was a wonderful bonding moment, and I’m so thankful for the experience with them.

So, that is it, in a nutshell :) We all passed, we are all officially Crossfit level 1 trainers, and I get to start working it now :)

PS: 54 days until Nick and I’s wedding!!!

Love,

Jen

Boobs to Bar

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts, Eat Well, Move Well and tagged with , , , ,

Yesterday’s Crossfit Main WOD:

7 rounds

7 front squats (165# for men RX’d, modified to 65# for intensity)

7 chest to bar pull-ups

Check out Crossfitter’s doing the workout HERE

 

Chest-to-bar pull ups

As you can see here, Jason K and other fitter-than-most were doing this workout in 3+ minutes…it took me 9:50. I DID, however, get my first, second, third and fourth (maybe more) CHEST TO BAR pull-up yesterday!!!! I was able to do a few un-assisted for the workout, but then had to switch to the orange band to finish them up with proper form. I guess all that time I thought I couldn’t do pull-ups I was actually STRONG enough, just didn’t have the coordination!! So here I am, a week after stringing my first set of pull-ups together, able to do a chest to bar…effing NUTS! :)

On another health related note, lack of coffee equals (honestly) goodness for Jen’s body; I have not been bloated this week, I feel more energy in my workouts and I dont’ feel SICK when I drink a hot, comforting cup of goodness! I had a decaf Americano this morning at my girl’s Wednesday breakfast, and all was good in this hood :) While I don’t think I would even have DECAF on the regular, it “felt” good to do it today :) So, here I am, at Starbucks drinking chamomile, and being fine with it :) Plus, I dont’ have that yucky, post-coffee, taste in my mouth. Why can’t I ALWAYS remember this feeling!? :)

I hope you all have an incredible day!! T-minus 3 days until the Crossfit Level 1 Cert!! :)

Love,

Jen

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts, Move Well and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday was one of those days in the gym that, regardless of what “place” I came in, I won in my mind :) Yesterday’s WOD:

“The Chief”

5 rounds

3 min AMRAP

3 power cleans (135/95 – I used 75)

6 pushups

9 squats

1 min rest

 

Now, I went into this KNOWING that I may not have as many rounds as everyone else, because I presently struggle with pushups; HOWEVER, I COMMITTED myself to doing the whole workout on my toes for the pushups(and I don’t mean halfsie pushups, I’m talking kissing the freakin’ floor pushups), and by golly, I did just that!

13 total rounds + 1 power clean =

40 {75#} power cleans

78 (TOE) pushups!

117 squats

If that is not exciting enough, (I can TELL that you’re freaking out with excitement :-p) I reached a goal that I have had for a year and a half (at least a year and a half that lululemon’s goal tender had been reminding me that I hadn’t reached my goal anyway…)!!!…

…::to string together 10 UNASSISTED kipping pull-ups::…

I FINALLY did it!!! Not once, maybe twice or three times…to the point where Nick told me I need to rest for the day :-p Doesn’t he know that when you get a new toy alllll you want to do is it play with that new toy?! :)

I’ve come a long way since my first ever pull-up in CENTRAL PARK on January 6, 2011…and no, I don’t have any actually pictures to PROVE my first pull-up…but it did happen there, after all these failed attempts

 

::and look at me now, 10 unassisted, consecutive kippers!! :-D ::

Great day in the gym followed by a great date night with my love…which will be followed by a GREAT weekend…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**::Weekend Ketchup::**

I know that I haven’t talked much about the wedding in the last, ohhhh, year and a half since we’ve been engaged, but with the practice, the move, making buddies and trying to feel like I LIVE here, it hasn’t been the forefront of our world. Now that it is two months away (as of a week from today) things are definitely starting to pick up! This weekend alone we:

  • BOOKED OUR HONEYMOON!!!!…TOOOOO MEXICO!!!!!!  I am BEYOND excited to be on vacation for a whole week, in the hot Mexican air, in an all inclusive resort where we won’t need to think about anything, besides, “do we want to lay on the beach or snorkel??” Trust me, I’m counting down the days :-p
  • I had my first DRESS FITTING/ALTERATIONS!!!! I was sooooo lucky to have some of my SB ladies there with me, you all made me feel like the most beautiful person on the planet!! I love you ladies!!!!
  • Finalized our CATERING MENU!!!! I am sooooooooooooo excited to eat that food again at the wedding :) hahaha.
  • My bridesmaid’s have their dresses!!
  • I am ALMOST finished addressing all 200 invites :-p

Great productive weekend with a little game of ‘Nick chases Jen up a mountain for ¾ of a mile’ to top it off (no joke, it was intense, I thought my lungs were bleeding when I got to the top) :-p We have fun ‘round here :-p

 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Much love,

 

Jen

Lessons from the Universe

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts, Move Well and tagged with , , , , ,

Nick training in Nevada :)

“Success is doing ordinary things, extraordinarily well”-Jim Rohn

 
As Mr. Rohn mentioned, being extraordinary is not what necessarily makes us successful at life, it’s doing those little day in and day out tasks extraordinarily well.

My goal is to be an AMAZING coach…not just an adequate enough coach, or even a GOOD coach…I want to be f$@*ing AMAZING. In order for that to be the case, I have a lot of work ahead of me. While I KNOW I have the heart to be an amazing coach, the passion, the enthusiasm; I have a whole lot of skills I need to tuck in my back pocket in addition to those gifts.

One of those skills will be checked off the list next weekend at the Level 1 Crossift certification. I am so excited to be around a whole room full of like-minded individuals who are all pursuing the opportunity to change people’s lives, just like I will be.

While I used to chase dreams for a whole hot second, and bail as soon as it looked difficult, or I looked inadequate…I feel like my mind set has changed dramatically in the last month! I am feeling a huge shift in my perspective as far as looking at that same difficult situation (let’s say I needed a particular degree for a career that I wanted to pursue), and while in the past I would have run if it looked like too large of a hurdle, I now am looking at it as one more tool I need to obtain to be a bad-ass TRAINER…an INCREDIBLE trainer. I have had the pleasure of having one particular challenge look me in the eye over and over again in the last week; that challenge comes in the form anatomy. ”Wait, you’re going to be a trainer and you’re not super sure on anatomy??? Say WHAT?” Now hold up…I never had any interest in this subject of movement AT ALL in my former years (up until two years ago) so I never did what I needed to obtain that information. Luckily, I’m still a vibrant young lass, and have the functional capabilities to learn new tricks! So rather than beating myself up and running the other direction yelling, “I am not worthy!!!” I will chalk this up as an OBVIOUS presentation from the universe of the next tool I need in my tool box in order to be the best trainer I can possibly be! :)  

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em “Certainly I can!” then get busy and find out how to do it!

-Theodore Roosevelt

 

EXHAUSTO!

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts, Move Well and tagged with , , , ,

The last few weeks I have been CONSISTENTLY working out 5 days a week, and HARD! Based on the title of this post, I’m sure you can figure out where this going…

Since upping my workouts, I have been….EXHAUSTED!!! I mean…EXHAAAAUUUUUSSSTTTEDDDD!! Going to bed at 8:30, taking naps in the middle of the day, incapable of waking up for ANYTHING in the morning…exhausted. Poor Nick has had to deal with me saying “Why am I so tired?!?!” pretty much every hour of the day for the last few weeks…he doesn’t seem to understand why I’m STILL asking this after he has already answered me about 50 times.

"I'm just going to lay here for one little second..."

While I am definitely noticing some differences in my strength, AND my body compisition…I’m super excited that I have a rest day today, to be perfectly honest with you. I’ve posted the last two days of my workouts…

Tuesday’s WOD

max pullups (15 kipped with orange band…I think I could have done more on a day when my hand was completely healed from the LAST time we did a lot of pull-ups :-p)

5k run (24:32) it was more like 3 miles, rather than 3.2 but I SCHOOLED my last 5k even still! :) (my 5k time was 30 minutes and some change the last time I did it :-p)

There was a lot of realization of growth in this one for me. While  I was no where near first done, which I didn’t expect anyway, I was able to run the entire 3 miles without stopping AND my time was significantly lower than any other time I’ve run 3 miles. To refresh you all on where I USED to be with running, essentially if I saw 200m on the board I would a) feel like crying, b) actually cry, or c) get SUPER grumpy and feel like leaving… So, I think it goes without saying that being able to run the whole time is definitely a spurt of growth, actually ENFORCING that we DO the 5k (because I don’t think anyone else wanted to do it either…) is a whole other level of growth in itself! :) Oh, and thank you to Andrew for running the last half of it with me :) Best brother-in-law-to-be ever :)

Wednesday’s WOD

6 min amrap:

10 deadlifts (#95)

15 pushups (knees)

20 sit-ups 

3 full rounds + 1 dead lift

I’m taking my rest day today and running with it :) I’m going to soak up every little morsel of my lunch break and fill it to the brim with food, sunshine and naps :)

 

Mucho love-o :)

Jen

 

Building Community

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts, Think Well and tagged with , , , , ,

Yesterday’s WOD:

“Nate”

20 min AMRAP

2 muscle-ups (modification: 1 muscle-up= 3 pull-ups + 3 dips)

4 hand-stand push-ups (modification, toes on a box)

8 kettlebell swings (30#)

9 rounds

Favorite thing about that workout: comradery . I truly felt that we were all cheering each other on yesterday, wanting to push each other, and encourage each other…and because of it, we were all a little bit closer after we were done.

THIS IS WHAT IT IS ABOUT PEOPLE!!!!

Without community, EVERYTHING is so much harder…success is built upon community. Check out this post at competeeveryday.com, called “Together”…

Never alone.

For anyone that’s ever felt lonely or isolated, those are two very powerful words.

There are a lot of reasons the sport of CrossFit has exploded onto the international scene, but I firmly believe the reason it has grown as fast as it has and what makes it unique in its staying power and potential is its community.

Because in the CrossFit community, you’re never alone.

You may finish last in a workout, but instead of having to run that last 200 meters in dead silence you have a handful of your fellow CrossFitters – your friends and second family – cheering loudly for you.

There’s always someone there to push you…

to encourage you…

to pick you up…

hold you accountable…

and keep you moving.

It’s almost surreal your first few weeks in a CrossFit affiliate.

You mean people actually cheer during a workout and care whether you finish or not?

Someone besides my coach is celebrating at a new goal reached?

Wow.

It’s pretty awesome when you think about it.

I recently wrote about how rough of a year 2011 had been pre-December.

But I’ve been incredibly blessed with some life-long friends who’s supported me and tons of people at my box.

People who text to check on me. Go to grab lunch just to make sure I’m doing ok.

A family of people who genuinely care.

When’s the last time you were able to say that about people you work out with or see at your gym?

CrossFit’s community is not just limited to one’s own affiliate either.

Ever travel?

My friend Jamie has been to 50+ boxes – experiencing all that CrossFit has to offer around the US.

I’ve been to a handful (not near 50!) myself.

And it’s like you’re visiting extended family.

You’re immediately welcomed, you know what to expect with certain WODs, and (non-CrossFit readers catch this) strangers cheer you on too!

It’s nuts how sometimes we’re one big happy CrossFit family.

Granted, there’s always exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, it’s a powerful and inviting culture.

And each CrossFit athlete – from a newbie who will never perform a muscle up to a Games winner like Rich Froning – wants nothing but success for his / her fellow community member.

It’s about competing.

It’s about family and new friendships.

It’s about goal-setting then goal-smashing.

And at the end of the day, it’s about everyone getting better – in and outside of the box.

CrossFit is about getting better – together as a community.

Never alone.

Always together.

 

This shit makes me emotional!!! This is what it’s about. This is why after 2 years of working out, I’m STILL doing it…still crushing goals…still talking to strangers about how awesome it is, and friends too :-p ;) Community sets this program apart from everything else out there…

I am so proud to be a part of this family… Let’s continue to encourage each other, push eachother, stretch eachother…cheer eachother on! One more rep, you can do it! Let’s make this the biggest, most encouraging, inspirational family the world has ever seen :)

 

Hard to believe this was already about a year ago...time for a new community shot!!! :) xoxoxoxo

 

 

Overflowing with love and gratitude,

Jen :)

Famous Friends :) :-p

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts, Move Well and tagged with , , , , , ,

I had quite the surprise Monday morning when I went to the Crossfit.com website to find out what the workout of the day was going to be. Rest day. Dammit! I scroll back to Sunday and who do I see but our Beverly buddies (specifically Alicia Gomes and Jared Monaco  of Crossfit Route 1) who created the workout;  nifty little video included:-p You can watch for yourself here!

 

 

So, as you could see on the workout, the WOD was a pull-up ladder. Minute 1, 1 pull-up; minute 2, 2 pull-ups, etc. Oh…does that sound too easy for you?? When you’re up to round 9 or 10, you are already 55 pull-ups deep in 10 minutes, and you’re tired. Trust me, don’t EVER look at a Crossfit workout and say “that’s it??”, usually “that’s it” is quite enough.

I got through 12 whole rounds and 10 of the 13th round before my hand ripped open. Dangit!! I could have gone longer! Oh well, 88 pull-ups is not too shabby!! :-p The best part about it was that I was able to link at least 10 together (with an orange band*, the thinnest)…I was, for some reason, incapable of doing that before, even with the band…but now…NOWWWWWW…non-issue, folks :)

 

With love and gratitude,

Jen

*I went back to kipping with the orange band for a while because I was hyper flexible through my lumber and thoracic spine during the kip. I didn’t have enough arm strength, and a little too much flexibility, which was equaling a major jacked up back every time I did a lot of pull-ups. So I started doing strict pull-ups to gain strength, and really started working on creating that hollow body during the kipping motion. Much to my excitement, today after doing 88 of them today, I was pain-free!!

Learning to suck it up….

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts, Move Well, Think Well and tagged with , ,

Even still, every now and then I have a super down-on-me day. Yesterday (Friday) we did a huge group workout, and the workout of the day was:

“Kelly”

5 round

400 m run

30 box jumps (20”/24”)

30 wall balls (16/20)

When I was writing the workout on the board, beneath the WOD I wrote “do your best, listen to your body, and the only person you should be comparing yourself to is your former self.” I wrote this for everyone, including myself. I presently struggle with comparison to others; usually in everyone else’s favor.

Welp. I finished dead last in the workout; down on all fours on the gym floor, head in my hands. Complete and utter exhaustion was upon me. Once I could compose myself enough to walk over to the filing cabinet to grab my journal, I headed straight for the outdoors. As soon as I sat down, tears started to spill. Before I continue, in my defense, I think I tend to handle the release of stress/emotions through exercise; I have had many a good cries on the side of the road mid-run, let me tell you. So, I started to get emotional, feeling frustrated that STILL after 2 years of doing Crossfit, I feel like I’m still always finishing last. I moved to California, started talking about Crossfit with the Innate Crew, and they start doing it, and somehow I’m still always last. Yeah, yeah, someone has to be last…but I guess I just don’t want it to be me EVERY SINGLE TIME. Plus, I feel with the upcoming Crossfit cert, everyone is so focused on getting Innate up to speed on the movements that I’m no longer getting any pointers, when I OBVIOUSLY need them, since I’m taking the longest to get the work done…or at least this is how I was seeing it :-p

So, in the past, I may have just continued to sit there feeling pity and utter discouragement for myself (this is a blog of honesty people… haha), but suddenly, as if an angel appeared, I hear the sweet voice of Jim Rohn pop into my thoughts:

“Don’t ask for less problems…ask for more skills!”

That is EXACTLY what I decided to do! I went back into the gym and asked Nick to help me (I would be lying if I said there were no emotional words that came out of me first, I am ME after all…). After a grueling workout, I found myself doing box jump after box jump, correcting my form (with Nick’s help, thank you love). I, against my ego’s will, had to go down to the smaller box to learn how to correctly link my jumps without my knees turning in like a little girl that has to pee (do you get that visual? :-p).

I’m not proud of the fact that I still have these days…at all. When I’m being logical, I recognize that everyone I’m working out with has been working out their entire life, and I’ve been doing this for two years; so, everyone else is a little further along in the game than me.

I’ll tell you what though, it’s at the end of a workout, when everyone else is done and journaling, and I’m still box-jumping that I feel it the most. I NEVER thought I would say this is a million years, but I actually miss people being in my face cheering me on. I realized yesterday how much I miss that, and need that.

So, if you see me working hard, and I look like I’m about to keel over…do NOT be afraid to get in my face and yell/cheer/coach me through it…and I promise, I PROMISE,  I’ll do the same for you.

 

Friday’s workout: “Kelly”

5 round

400 m run

30 box jumps (20”/24”)18” box, we don’t yet have a 20”

30 wall balls (16/20) 16 pounder

Finished in 30:12

 

Saturday’s WOD

10 rounds for time

15 deadlifts (rx’d for men was 135#, probably 95# for women…I used 75#)

15 pushups (did first round on toes, and part of second…rest on knees)

20:50

It blew me away that a woman (an elite Crossfitter) finished this in 13 minutes, WITH rx’d weight!

…I’d PAY to see that!

 

With love and gratitude,

Jen

Training to be a Trainer :)

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts, Move Well, Think Well and tagged with , ,

Good morning :)

Last night, about the time I was thinking I could sneak out for Zumba, it got really crazy in the office (which is a GREAT thing!), and then I needed to be at Innate Fitness at 6:30 to help teach class (yippee!! :) ). So, needless to say, Zumba unfortunately did not happen last night, but WILL tomorrow (I took the action step of getting a 3-day free pass to this particular gym, so it’s going to happen!).

The class I was helping to teach was a beginners class (which I hope to have as my class to teach in February!!), and I knew (because I created the workout) that we were going to be going over the press that night. Andrew has had the tendency to ask me if I have any pointers in the past, while he was teaching the movements (usually when I’m caught off guard) so I wanted to come prepared this time.

One of the things that has been making me nervous (the most) about being a coach is my articulation. I have worried, in the past, about not being able to explain well enough how to perform a particular movement, safely. I have an excitable personality and I tend to jump all over the place. So, before the workout last night, I watched a video on how to teach the press progression…three times. These 10-15 minutes of preparation time created a whole lot of confidence and even EXCITEMENT for Andrew to call on me this time :-p (I’m sure those nights of lulling myself to sleep with “I’m a confident, articulate Crossfit coach” didn’t HURT either…:-p).While I may know how to do the movements, I don’t always know how to articulate each little cue. I needed some organization to my thoughts. The video created a template for me to follow when teaching , and because of that I felt calmer while talking, and instead of fumbling along nervously,  I was able to articulate what I needed to say clearly, and actually punctuate it with my personality! Hot diggity! :-p

For you coaches out there, how do you prepare yourself mentally before a class?

 

In love and gratitude,

Jen