3 rounds for time of:50 GHD sit-ups25 strict handstand push-ups The GHD: Why and How. We have eight GHDs at the shop for a reason – the apparatus is the number one accessory piece that we want you to incorporate into your training outside of your hour CrossFit class. The GHD develops midline stability as well as awareness of movement.  The exercises most commonly done on the GHD are the hip extension, the hip and back extension, and the GHD sit-up. We want you, our athletes, making use of this apparatus in the 3-4 minutes before or after class.  As a starting point, athletes should be able to perform 25 hip extensions, 25 back extensions, and 25 GHD sit-ups each in a row.  Athletes should aim to hit each of these three movements one time every week.  As a gauge, it takes 1 minute to perform 25 of these repetitions – not a bad commitment! During...Read more

Overhead Squat 3-3-3-3-3 reps It Does Add Up Sitting around, quite full, after Thanksgiving dinner someone in the living room read a headline of a Thanksgiving Day article, “The average American consumes 3,000 calories during the Thanksgiving meal plus another 1,500 on snacks and drinks.” Whoa!  The consensus in the room was that that sounded like A LOT, a definite overestimation.  There’s no way! Some Thanksgivings I’ve stayed very Paleo, eating mostly the exact same foods in type and quantity that I would on any other day.  This year, partly because I’ve been doing the PRYL challenge for the past 4 weeks and my compliance has been through the roof, I decided not to worry about it, and eat whatever looked good, whenever it looked good… I hopped on MyFitnessPal and entered in the quantities of the foods I ate on Thanksgiving Day to investigate the 3,000 calorie claim.  My...Read more

3 rounds for time of:50 hip extensions25 strict pull-ups Oly Meet Recap! The Roots Fall Oly Meet took place the Saturday before Thanksgiving and was a huge success!  Forty-eight competitors lifted in the biggest weightlifting meet Roots has hosted. 16 Roots athletes represented with great technique, speed, and strength. This was Roots’ first meet that utilized the Sinclair coefficient which equalizes weight between lifters, as well as the Malone-Meltzer coefficient which equalizes age for anyone over 31. Here are the highlights from Roots athletes: Pam Walter finished 5th overall with 90lb. snatch and a 120lb. clean and jerk. Trish Krystman lifted a nice 125/150. Megan Isherwood had a strong showing with 120/157.5 Arlene Brugal looked great and hit 125/150 Maria Paz Riquelme 95/135 first meet Courtney Prentice 110/135 first meet Emily Moore 70/85 was very resilient Jake Fojtek 207.5/245 got 2 new meet pr’s! Arch Ollennu 175/215 first meet and went 6...Read more

“Isabel”30 snatches (135/95) for time. Isabel Today is the first retest in the Benchmark Series.  We did this workout three months ago on September 9th. Before coming to class today, check your log books or your SugarWOD app and see what your time was three months ago AND the weight you used for the workout.  Have this information with you. There are a few ways you can approach this workout depending on what your time was last time. If you did the workout in 4 minutes or less AND you did not use the RX weight, we recommend that you add a few pounds (5-10) this go around and try and match your time from before. If you really really want an identical retest, then you are more than welcome to retest the workout exactly as you did it before (with the same weights).  That being said, if your time enters...Read more

3 rounds for time of:30 toes-to-bars155-lb. clean and jerks, 15 reps Planned Benchmarks for the Year – Round Two! In September of 2014 we launched an epic year-long benchmark series.  The series included retesting 12 CrossFit benchmark workouts, 4 lifts, and 5 skill tests on a 3 month basis for one year.  The goal of the series was to keep a consistent focus on athletic  progress and development over the course of a year and to help identify weaknesses. December kicks off the second round of benchmark testing where we’ll take our first crack at redoing all 21 tests over the next three months.   To learn more about the benchmark series, click here to view the original post. Questions?  Post to comments. Read more