What to expect this cycle

Daily Extra Credit

This will primarily consist of cyclical aerobic work, isometric structural strength work, and additional mobility. Let me be the first to remind you that this is “extra credit” so if you complain that its not fun, you don’t have time, or you don’t like it my (or your coaches) response will simply be “Then don’t do it”. The extra credit is unsexy by design, if everything you had to do in training  was fun, exciting, and sexy everyone would be Lebron James. The extra credit is not extra work for work’s sake, its designed to support the primary training, and help your body adapt properly and efficiently.

Schedule 

The training for the first 3 weeks will follow a general progression week to week. Training 3-5 sessions a week is advised, however I’d advise against 6 sessions per week.   Mondays and Thursdays will be similar training sessions for the first 3 weeks, as well as Tuesday’s and Saturdays. So a good sample week could look like this:

3 days: M, W, Sa
4 days: M, Tu, W,  F or Sa
5 days: M, Tu, W, F, Sa

I’d also add for our experienced athlete (1 year+) it might behoove you to take a day during the week to work specifically on the skills that give you the most issues in our tests. If you do this remember that taking skills to extreme fatigue and/ or absolute failure is a recipe for creating bad habits. Instead be intentional and meticulous with your practice, specifically with the more advanced gymnastics and weightlifting skills. Lastly remember that on rest days we still recommend you be active in a non stressful was. So get outside and enjoy this beautiful city!

Weekly Life Challenges

Each week we will be posting a new nutritional challenge on the board. Just like the extra credit they won’t always be easy, but they will most certainly assist you in improving over the next six weeks. The challenges will be designed to help you create better habits, and primarily be focused in the sleep, stress, and nutrition department. So can continuing to adhere to the challenges for longer than the week they’re listed  will certainly be beneficial.  Stay tuned for the first challenge tomorrow.

 

Thoughts on Test Week Part 2

Lets dive right in…

Thursday
Strength Endurance, Aerobic Power, Recovery
3:00 Max Pull-up
3:00 Rest
3:00 Row for Cals
3:00 Rest
3:00 Max Power Snatch @ 75/45
3:00 Rest
3:00 Max Shuttle

This is by far my favorite test and the one most unique to this cycle. We have several items at play, the first of which is strength endurance in multiple planes of pulling. Since all of the first three intervals are full body movements that utilize a significant amount of leg and hip drive, we get a glimpse into how well the athlete can utilize the aerobic system to produce power. More importantly the rest interval gives us an idea of how well the athlete’s aerobic system can drive recovery  between bouts of higher efforts.

Saturday
Aerobic Power, Aerobic Endurance, Strength Endurance,  CP Battery 
20:00 AMRAP
5 Power Cleans 135/95 
10 TTB
15 Wall Ball 20/14

Ahh the traditional CrossFit triplet. This was actually taken from the 2012 CrossFit Open, and on the surface this looks like a straight aerobic endurance test. However saying that would negate the fact that this test (and all CrossFit tests for that matter) will be limited by a multitude of factors unique to each individual. This is the beauty and the struggle of testing with what we call mix modal tests. Limiting factors could be maximal strength, size, technique, flexibility, height, aerobic capacity, strength endurance…. the list goes on and on. So theoretically one could improve on this test by getting stronger, losing body mass, improving technique, or growing a few inches! The good news is athletes have multiple avenues to improve this test. However we won’t know for sure what specifically has been improved over time (besides the test itself). I’m not passing judgement or knocking testing in this fashion, rather pointing out a unique facet of testing fitness in this fashion.

One last thought, you may have noticed the lack of a true isolated cyclical test. I basically snuck it in last week 🙂 so look forward to retesting your mile run in the next 6 weeks! Monday I’ll have some extras we’re throwing in this training cycle to really help everyone knock the retests out of the park! Have a great weekend!

-Wes Kimball

June Athlete of the Month: Blaz Ruzic!

 In an effort to get to know the fine folks of CrossFit Austin, we embark on our Athlete of the Month series.  Each month we will spotlight a different CFA athlete.  This month we have chosen the amazing Blaz Ruzic!

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State your Name and/or Nickname please:

Blaz. Alias include: Blazinator, Blaztastic, Blazinsky, Master Blazter, Lord Blazirus, Captain Orblazmic, & Mr. Pickles

Words to live by?

Always drink upstream from the herd.

What is your fitness background?

I played college sports (Horseshoes & corn hole) and hooked up w/ the traveling circus a few times over the years.

How long have you been CrossFitting?

Long enough to know I still have a lot to learn.

What’s your favorite part of CrossFit Austin?

The doors are always open to members and if they aren’t it’s still pretty easy to break in.

What are your training goals?

Defeat Ninjas. Those guys are everywhere and always a threat.

Favorite sport or activity?

Anything I have a chance at winning and/or blaming someone else if I lose.

Recent adventure you’re planning?

How to raise the 1st Olympian in my family, she’s only 3 months old so I’ve got my work cut out.

Tell us something we don’t know about you…

I have cat like reflexes on the dance floor, especially at open bar venues.

Longhorns or Aggies?

I don’t care what college grad is serving me burger and fries, it just needs to be tasty.

Leave the fine folks of CrossFit Austin with some parting words…

Nature gave us all something to fall back on, and sooner or later we all land flat on it.

It Pays to Bring Your Friends!

Hey CFA! You like CrossFit Austin right? You like discounts right? You like your friends right? Well maybe you don’t like them, but either way bringing them to CrossFit Austin is a great plan!

We now have these awesome little cards that you can give to your friends and invite them to join us. It’s easy!

1. Write your name on the card
2. Give it to a friend
3. If they sign up for a membership with us, you BOTH get $25 off!
(Applied to new member’s first month and current member’s next bill)

Just have them contact us and bring their card in when they decide to join us! These are peppered all over the gym, but if you can’t locate any just ask Gen for a few!

front referral (2) back referral

RALLY! Post-Regionals Celebration!

JOIN US!! Saturday, June 7th {9:00//10:00 WOD -11:00am- 2:00pm BBQ}

Regionals Celebratory WOD & BBQ/Potluck
Let’s show our regionals team how proud of them we are by sweating together, eating together, laughing together, dancing together, basketballing together, drinking from the communal rum bottle together… 
Burgers and dogs provided. Feel free to bring other meat if you like and bring a dish to share!

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We Are 1!

June Free Community WOD

Work hard | Sweat hard | Play hard

Come join us on Saturday June 14 @ 9:00 am for a free workout with the CrossFit Austin community  

Community workouts are open to everyone and a great way to find out what CrossFit is all about.

All skill levels welcome.

Current members: Bring a friend

First timers: Meet a friend

REGISTER HERE

2014 Regionals Information

The Regionals season has begun! Athletes from CrossFit Austin will be competing in the South Central Regional this weekend: Friday May 23th through Sunday May 25th. The competition will be held in San Antonio at the Freeman Coliseum and we have a great team competing for a chance to go to the CrossFit Games in July.  Below is the official guide for folks that want to support CFA this weekend.

Who’s Competing?

Team CrossFit Austin 1
Males: Alex Gold, Andrew Key, Blaz Ruzic, Conner Moore
Females: Leigh Legare, Stacey Magnesio, Lindsey Guelde, Liz Collura-Rosenberg

Schedule of Events
The full schedule of the weekend’s events can be seen >>HERE<< these times are of course subject to change.

Friday May 23th 
Team Event 1: 9:00 – 10:00 AM
15-15, 15-15, 12-12, 12-12, 9-9, 9-9 reps for time of:
Muscle-ups
Clean and jerks, 135 / 95 lb.
Time cap: 16 minutes

TEAM CFA: Heat 3 Lane 1 | 9:40 am

Event 2 & 3: 10:20 – 11:20 AM
2: 1-rep-max hang squat snatch
Time cap: 8 minutes

3: Max distance handstand walk
Time cap: 6 minutes

Team CFA : Heat 3 Lane 1 | 11:00 am

Saturday’s events start @ 9:00AM and 10:35 AM. Exact start times are dependent upon where our athletes place so we will update this page as well as Facebook and Twitter with the specific times as we find them out.

 

 

Travel and Parking

Just like last year, Regionals will be held just down the road in San Antonio. We have a Facebook group created to help coordinate carpooling on Friday and Saturday. Please comment below if you have not been added to the group and you are planning to come watch.

Freeman Coliseum
3201 East Houston St.
San Antonio, Texas 78219

Parking is $7/day or $18 for the 3 day pass. There is no in and out, and it is limited.

This year roughly twice as many spectator tickets have been sold so please account for the fact that there will be a lot of people trying to get in and park at the same time and this may create some significant delays.

c1fa on black

What if I can’t make it?

For up to minute updates on Team CFA…

Like us on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/CrossFitAustin

Follow us on Twitter in the following place
@crossfitaustin
@coachwesk (Coach Wes)
@davisxctf (Coach Aaron)
@adriennerampaul (Coach Ade)

For general updates on our Regional, and other Regionals

Like:
https://www.facebook.com/CFGSouthCentral

Follow:
@CrossFitGames
@CFGSouthCentral

If you’re not on twitter sign up its 2014 folks This is where you will find the quickest updates.

For all other info make sure and read through our regions info page

http://games.crossfit.com/region/south-central/schedule


Looking forward to a great weekend for all of our athletes and wonderful community! 

CFA Welcomes New Coach | Tim Garland

From CFA Management:tim3 (2)
CrossFit Austin is proud to introduce the newest member of our Coaching Staff, Tim Garland.  Previously an athlete and Coach at CrossFit Kyle, Tim joins our team with years of professional and athletic experience! We’ll let him tell you more about himself… but we’re excited to add another seasoned and experienced coach at CrossFit Austin! Be sure to welcome Tim to the CrossFit Austin community next time you see him!

tim1About Tim:
Tim comes to CrossFit Austin with 9+ years experience in the fitness industry. He began his formal education at the University of Oklahoma, where he studied Health and Sport Sciences and was a member of the Sports Medicine team (football). During his time in Oklahoma, he also played for OU’s Rugby Club, before transferring to Texas State University to complete his degree requirements. He walked the stage in 2009 with a B.S. in Exercise and Sport Sciences from the Health and Human Performance Department at Texas State, and currently holds the American College of Sports Medicine-Certified Personal Trainer and CrossFit Level One Trainer Certifications.

 

 

A Message From Tim:

tim2 (2)I have competed at several different levels in a few different sports over the years, and enjoyed them all. Finding something that pushes you to develop your mind and body, as well as your character, is a goal worth pursuing. CrossFit has afforded me the opportunity to once again test myself in a new ways and provides an arena for these tests on a daily basis.

“No citizen has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”-Socrates

 

May Athlete of the Month: Alexandra “Sissy” Walton!

 In an effort to get to know the fine folks of CrossFit Austin, we embark on our Athlete of the Month series.  Each month we will spotlight a different CFA athlete.  This month we have our beloved Sissy!

sissy1 sissy2

State your Name and/or Nickname please:
Alexandra, Alex, but mostly known as Sissy!


Words to live by?
“Be a master of the mind, not mastered by the mind” -Zen Proverb-
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment” – Buddha –


What is your fitness background?
I don’t really have one. I played volleyball a few years in high school and have always worked out in some fashion since middle school. I really didn’t start focusing on my fitness until I joined CFA, and I am so thankful I did. 


How long have you been CrossFitting?
It will be 2 years in June and one of the best decisions I have made.

What’s your favorite part of CrossFit Austin?

Everything! I love the workouts, the coaches, and the people. The coaches are amazing and always bring such positivity and encouragement. They always push me and make me realize my own potential. The 5:30am class is freaking amazing. They are just such great people, athletes, and supporters. They are always there to cheer me on and push me through the workouts.  I couldn’t choose better people to work out with. 


What are your training goals?
I just want to be healthy most of all. However, I love that I keep getting stronger and faster during the process. I also would love to improve my upper body strength and my overall endurance.  


Favorite sport or activity?
CrossFit, Reading, and Meditation!


Recent adventure you’re planning?
I got married in October and we plan on taking our honeymoon later this year. We are still deciding on our location.

Tell us something we don’t know about you…

I tried to be a boxer when I was younger, but it didn’t work out so well.  My dad was a boxer and I wanted to be cool like him. However, I quickly discovered I really didn’t like hitting people. I felt too guilty hurting them, so needless to say I didn’t make a very good boxer. =)

 

Longhorns or Aggies?
Longhorns, of course. Given that my husband works for LHN, I might be in trouble if I choose Aggies. 


Leave the fine folks of CrossFit Austin with some parting words…
Thank you CFA for everything. You not only have had an impact in my fitness journey but have had an everlasting impact in my life. You constantly push me to realize my own potential. You push me past my comfort levels and no matter how much I want to quit, you have given me the confidence I need to constantly keep moving. Everything I have learned and continue to learn at CFA are invaluable lessons that I am forever grateful for. 

LIMITED GYM HOURS | MAY 23-26

Friday May 23rd kicks off the first day of the 2014 CrossFit Regionals South Central competition. We are heading down to San Antonio to support our team and hope that you’ll do the same! In addition to Friday’s shortened hours and our Saturday closure, we will be closed on Monday May 26th in honor of Memorial Day.

Friday May 23rd: Closed @ 9:30 am

Saturday May 24th: Closed

Monday May 26th: Closed