Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Cheese, Chocolate, and Heroes!

Made a stop in Zurich, Switzerland over the weekend and was able to squeeze in two wod's at the local affiliates.  First I stopped in at Reebok CrossFit Zurich.  They have two locations, this one their newest, is located the Hohlstrasse area of Zurich is only about 15-20 min from the airport.  The box is approximately 1500sqft. and is well equipped with Rogue gear.  If you do have the opportunity to visit make sure you check their Zen Planner or drop them an email before you go.  They have a very active membership (200) members and while the box is well laid out realistically can only handle about 8-10 athletes per class.  For my visit I had the "pleasure" of experiencing the main site wod "Destorges".  It's an ass kicker.  The weights aren't too bad but it's definitely a lot of work.

Next I had the brilliant idea of trying to squeeze in one more wod before I left Switzerland that evening.  I made my way to CrossFit Turicum.  (Zurich was originally named "Turicum" when it was founded by the Romans some 7000 years ago.)  I was fortunate to be met by two of the co-owners Beni (35th place in the 2011 European Regionals) and Tibor.  I happened in during an open gym session with about a dozen people working on different skills.  Between coaching the athletes Tibor and Beni had the chance to fill me in on the history of their gym.  Recently having moved into the current 5000 sqft (2500 of which is dedicated to a jiu jitsu qym) location due to membership growth.  Membership is currently around 80 members but growing at a steady pace.  They’re also involved with a local university in developing an outdoor crossfit-like area for thousands of students to take advantage of. 
The WOD for today was "DT".  Another hero wod!  Just my luck.  No excuses but after having done "Desforges" about 3 hours prior, DT was a bitch.

All things considered it was a good day.  Visited two new boxes bringing up my total to 50 worldwide, made some new friends, and attempted to honor the fallen through a small sacrifice of effort and sweat.

(More pictures on the FB page)

CrossFit Zurich



CrossFit Turicum



 

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

XXX The Porn You Eat XXX

 Check out this smart article about one of America's favorite "past time's"...
 Junk food not Porn.
http://robbwolf.com/2012/01/24/the-porn-you-eat/

Two guys and donuts-censored

Monday, January 23, 2012

I just don't get it...

In a faraway land there are about a dozen people living in a parking lot, freezing their butts off. I wonder what the members of #OccupyWEF’s Fran time would be if they took the energy and focus it took to build igloos and focused it into CrossFit. If you want to change something, start with yourself. In my opinion CrossFit is a fine technique for self-improvement. Carry Atlas stones Not snow blocks.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

When weather shuts down your box... Do you? 
A.  Accept it and take a rest day
B.  Do a wod indoor at home
C.  Suck it up and get it done

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Throwdown or Snowdown ?

Throwdown Seattle style.  28 deg F, 15mph wind, sleet/snow.  Perfect weather for a throwdown, right?  Nineteen teams of two (male/female) competed in the first Crossfit Stoneway "Resolution Revolution" Throwdown.  A half dozen local boxes as well as CrossFit Dark Horse from CA didn't let the weather slow them down or dampen the drive. After two very creative wods that covered a broad spectrum of CF movements,  CF Advantage took home 1st place. 

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Can 1.3 billion people be wrong?


   China may be on the road to taking over the world but how can they be missing the boat on CrossFit?  Not one affiliate in the whole country!  Getting it done when/where I can while at The Great Wall of China.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Locals Only

Last week the owner of CF Fuse(Troy)and I decided to take a morning and go make some new friends. Our day started @ 0800 where we dropped in at Jet City CF ( jetcitycrossfit.com ) in south Seattle (Georgetown) for Death by Pull Ups followed by 10 min of Max distance rowing. The box is tucked away at the north end of Boeing Field in an industrial area. No signage for Jet City CF on the outside, a large red/white sign with 1115 S. Elizabeth St can be seen from the street, and its located next to "Troll Motors". Andrew the coach was cool and definitely knowledgable. If you ever drop by make sure to check out their homemade reverse hyper machine!

 Next we hauled over to Stoneway CrossFit (stonewaycrossfit.com) in the north part of Seattle for their 0930 class. We we're coached by the owner Scott Rodriguez through a creative mini wod of 30 burpee blasters (burpee, toes to bar, pull ups), 100 med ball squats, 75 abmat sit ups. 10 min to complete as many of the challenges as you could. Then a met-con of 6 front squats (65lb), 6 lunges (no bar, 6 back squat (65lb). Amrap 12 min. Easy to find box just north of downtown Seattle. If your in town January 14th stop by and check out the "Resolution Revolution Throwdown".

Next we headed to CrossFit Amped in downtown Bellevue for the 1200pm class. Amped embodies the word "energy". Good music, lots of people smiling, athletes warming up. You can almost always find the two owners Izzy and Rob in the lounge area () The workout here was also two phased. First 8 x 25m sled pushes (225lb)w/ 8 burpees after each push. The metcon consisted of 15-12-9 DB Thrusters (40lbs) and pull ups. The two wods together made for agreat combo of power and cardio. The box is easy to find worth the visit. If you hit Seattle you have to check out CF Amped (crossfitamped.com).

Friday, January 6, 2012

48 and counting...

My career allows me the opportunity to travel the world. In my free time, during travel, I like to CrossFit. What started out as a way to keep me active while on the road quickly turned into an obsession. I found myself asking myself who knows when the next time you’ll be in Paris. Wake up, get off your ass, and find a box! In 2011 I was able to visit 47 boxes covering 3 continents, 6 countries, and 12 states.( Before I got serious about CF I hit a box in Canada (2010) too.)

 My hope for this blog is to provide a forum for people to reach out to other athletes talk up their boxes, ask for recommendations of boxes in locations they may be traveling to, and generally promote the CrossFit way of life. Along the way I also plan to expose others to the variety of crossfit boxes out there and what each one may have to offer. That being said I don’t claim to be a firebreather and likely never will be (although that doesn’t keep me from trying). I also don’t claim to be an accomplished writer (as I’m sure I will demonstrate time and time again). I’ll be honest and acknowledge that I took English 101 twice in college. Writing just ain’t my thing but maybe if I had something I was interested in to ramble about I might be able to spit out a coherent thought or two.

So if you are planning to travel somewhere and need a recommendation check out the “Recommend a Box” tab if you’re lucky somebody may hit back with some sound advice.

Monday, January 2, 2012

It may not be what you think...

So I feel as though I should provide some background on how my addiction started. I married a wonderful woman in March of 1996. The "incident" happened shortly thereafter. We needed to make room for "her stuff" in the closet. Understandable, right? All I had to do was part with my t-shirt collection from college. "Who needs this many old ratted out t-shirts?! We'll buy you new ones...ok?" Learning early on to pick my battles wisely, I begrudgingly agreed and moved on. Over the next few years I again amassed a nice collection of police and SWAT related t-shirts. In 2005, I changed professions and subsequently had to move across the country. My t-shirt collection again fell victim. I know, tragic right!?

And then it happened, a coworker introduces me to this new workout craze called CrossFit . It took me a few weeks but, eventually I gave CrossFit a try. Like most virgin's to Crossfit the first wod left me humbled and exposed serious gaps in my training. I was both crushed and hooked all at once. I laid on the floor mentally and physically devastated by what most crossfitters would consider a warm up. My college education centered around fitness and more specifically strength and conditioning. I had spent years doing the standard Back and Bi's on Mon., Chest and Tri's on Tues., 30 min on the treadmill, etc... routine at various franchised gyms. I felt as though I had a strong grasp on what it took to get someone into shape. Man, was I wrong. As a consolation for my poor performance the coach gave me a t-shirt to wipe away my tears and that's when my addiction was reborn.

My blog isn't about my eternal pursuit of fitness but my mission to have the coolest t-shirt collection ever! (That’s not entirely true.) I now have over four dozen t-shirts from affiliates I visited in 2011. The byproducts of my illness is that I get to visit a lot of really cool boxes, meet some great people, and be a humble part of the community known as CrossFit.