HAVE YOU HEARD OF CROSSFIT FOR HOPE?

Due to some legal drama, the Fight Gone Bad Fundraiser that we’ve participated in during the Fall for the past two years is now defunct. To take the place of the fundraiser, CrossFit has created CrossFit for Hope which they scheduled for Saturday, June 9th. Bits of info from the site are below.

Since we just had our amazing Memorial Day Murph Fundraising BBQ Event, we felt it wouldn’t be fair to ask you all to contribute to another fundraiser so soon after. So what we’re doing is planning on doing the workout anyway. We’ll just have one class scheduled so we can have one large fun group. It won’t be an event like Murph, just a bunch of us cheering each other on through the WOD. We still may do snacks and drinks for after if you’re interested. You’ll find the link below if you would like to contribute and donate and/or collect donations. But we won’t require you to do so. Totally up to you.

If you have any questions or input on this please let us know! Thanks!

CROSSFIT FOR HOPE - SATURDAY/JUNE 9, 2012

What’s CrossFit for Hope?

CrossFit is combatting childhood cancer and other deadly diseases through its inaugural CrossFit for Hope fundraiser, benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Contributions can be performance-based pledges or donations for participants and affiliates. We’ll keep track of the athlete performances and donations for each individual and every participating Affiliate.

How do I get involved?

You can either register to be a participant , sponsor participants and affiliates, or both. As a registered participant, people can search for you through the site. Seek out sponsors and have them visit your page to make a pledge or donation.

The workout: “Hope”

Three rounds of:
Burpees
75 pound Power snatch
Box jump, 24″ box
75 pound Thruster
Chest to bar Pull-ups

“Hope” has the same format as Fight Gone Bad. In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate,” the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep.

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

Bench Press 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

then,

15 minute Partner AMRAP

500m Row
40 Kettlebell Swings, 53/35lbs
30 Toes-to-Bar

Between you and your partner, alternate who does the 500m row for each round. Whichever partner isn’t rowing works on the kettlebell swings and toes-to-bar. When the partner rowing completes 500m, he/she can help complete the kettlebell swings and toes-to-bar, but only one partner can work on these two exercises at a time.

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

We last did this workout December 22, 2011.

EVEN MORE MURPH PICS

Check out the full album on Facebook.

“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.”  –Tennessee Williams

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

10 Rounds for time

10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull, 75/55lbs
10 Steps Lunge Walk
10 Ring Dips
10 Steps Lunge Walk

We last did this workout April 7, 2011.

MORE MURPH PICS

OUR 2nd MEMORIAL DAY MURPH IS IN THE BOOKS

We are so thankful and proud of EVERYONE who came in for “Murph” on their day off. It was so great to see so many of you at the box so excited for the WOD, pushing yourselves, and having such a good time post-WOD hanging with everybody. We’re extremely grateful for all of you amazing people who choose to be a part of our CrossFit Fresno Family. You are all what make the box such a joy to be at for everyone and for us. You warm our hearts and bring happiness to our lives.

ALCORTA CATERING IS BOMB!

Special humongous THANK YOU  to Freddy Alcorta brother of Jen and the rest of the Alcorta family and friends that came out and provided us with some seriously amazing grub! We and everyone else at the box truly thank you for your massive generosity in donating your time and food for feeding some hungry CrossFitters. You’re a part of what makes our community so great!

PICS

Checkout the handful of shots below taken before, during, and after “Murph”. More are to come. If any of you out there took some great pics too we’d love for you to share them with everyone on Facebook. Thanks!

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

Deadlift 3-3-3-3-3

then,

“Annie”

For time

50-40-30-20-10

Double-Unders
Sit-Ups

3rd ANNUAL MEMORIAL DAY MURPH FUNDRAISER & BBQ/POTLUCK

It’s time everyone. There are many Hero WODs out there, and for each and every one we put our hearts and souls into them to pay tribute and honor the sacrifices made. This day we honor all of our soldiers past and present with “Murph”. Doing this workout is nothing compared to what our soldiers have endured and continue to endure for our freedom, but it will give us an opportunity to celebrate their spirits and raise funds for several very worthy charities. So during the WOD when you think you just can’t go on and feel completely beat, we hope you’ll remember all the soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice and push yourselves in their honor.

Post-WOD we’ll continue the celebrating and honoring with a BBQ and a great time with your fellow CrossFitters, family, and friends. Even if you won’t be doing “Murph” we hope you’ll stop by, make a donation in the donation jar, and grab a bite to eat with us.

Don’t forget we will have a wave start to try to alleviate some of the traffic on the pull-up bars, but it will be unavoidable with over 30 athletes. The times for the starts are estimates as we expect some shuffling to take place as people arrive, need to get warmed-up, and get distracted by the smoking tri-tip and other food. And keep in mind that we will all have to be nice and share bars and bands. Each bar can fit two people at a time so just make sure you don’t plant yourself or a band right in the middle of a bar. With the bar space we have we should be able to have close to 20 folks doing pull-ups at any given time. Folks doing elevated push-ups may also have to share boxes or benches.

Thank you in advance to EVERYONE  who will be participating in some fashion, has donated, and will be at the box just showing support. We appreciate each and every one of you! We’re going to have a fantastic time together getting through the WOD and remembering our soldiers.

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

“Murph”

1 Mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 Mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

We last did this workout May 28, 2012.

MURPH IS JUST ABOUT HERE!

Okay folks! Memorial Day Murph is on Monday! We know many of you have been chewing at the bit for your chance to redo Murph and improve on your time. There are a handful of you who will be doing Murph for the first time as prescribed and others who will be doing it for the first time ever. We’re so thrilled to see how excited you all are at not only completing the WOD, but also to contribute to this fantastic fundraiser and have a fantastic time with your fellow CrossFitters and some friends. Don’t forget, the time you signed up for is to allow you opportunity for warm-up and prep on your own. You will be put in waves that will start 10-15 minutes apart. We’re expecting 30 people for sure to do the WOD. Last year we had a handful of unexpected peeps join us as well. It could get a bit harry at the pull-up bars, but as long as we all play nice and share everything should turn out great. And just remember to not get to caught up with your time because this is a fundraiser after all and a chance to honor our soldiers past and present.

Don’t forget, Jen, her brother, and their crew out of the kindness of their hears will be donating and serving up some of the main grub. But let’s all chip in with some snacks and beverages (adult or otherwise). If you have any family and friends who want to come by and watch they can drop a kind donation in the donation jar and also grab some grub. All donations collected will go to the fundraiser.

NEW STUFF AT THE BOX

If you haven’t been in the past week or just haven’t’ noticed, we added a few new toys for you to enjoy and other items to appreciate. First off, if you didn’t catch it on Facebook the new exterior signage Jeff Sherman designed has been installed. Also courtesy of Jeff is the wall-ball wall logo he stenciled and painted by hand which took all day and night to complete. Carl and Tonya are in town for the long weekend and brought us one of his Freestyle Connection banners, also designed by Jeff by the way, to hang up. You’ll also see that we replaced all the metal rings hanging from the beams with the wooden rings that most of you who have recently gotten your muscle-ups prefer. While we were having fun watching the competition at Regionals we also picked up a handful of items from Again Faster. We managed to snag the only 3 extra plyo cubes they brought over from the East Coast, 7 kettlebells of varying weights, a couple of ab mats, and for kicks a 30lb medicine ball because who doesn’t want to try wall-balls with a 30lb med ball. Locally we also picked up 4 20lb weight vests for those of you who seem to enjoy the extra challenge for some WODs and for use for “Murph”. As with everything else in the box, let’s all be kind to the new equipment so everyone can enjoy them while sucking wind and having fun during WODs.

Memorial Day Murph – Schedule

As of Friday there are more than 25 people signed up to do Memorial Day Murph.  We will be organizing participants into heats.  The plan is to have a heat start every 15 minutes with the first leaving at 900AM.  When you sign-up on ZenPlanner to do Memorial Day Murph you’ll notice that there are multiple times listed.  The first time is the suggested show-up time, either 800AM or 830AM.  The other times listed are the scheduled start times for the heats.

Remember that this is for Charity so don’t forget to sign-up on the Memorial Day Murph Site.

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

Split Jerk 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

then,

Death by Power Clean and Jerk (set up bar at 50% 1 rep max)

With a continuously running clock do one clean and jerk in the first minute, two clean and jerks in the second minute, three clean and jerks the third minute… continuing as long as you are able.

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

“Helen”

3 Rounds for time

400m Run
21 Kettlebell Swings, 53/35lbs
12 Pull-ups

We last did “Helen” March 3, 2012.

This is a classic video of the original CrossFit Games Champion James “OPT’ FitzGerald attempting a sub 7 minute “Helen”.  This video was taken at the original CrossFit in Santa Cruz sometime between the 2007 and 2008 games.  Although many of the kettlebell swings are suspect the effort is impressive.  If you’re interested in seeing another perspective here’s an uncut video. How will you do with “Helen”?

MEMORIAL DAY MURPH

You can still be a part of this fundraiser. Make a $35 donation at the Memorial Day Murph site and sign-up on Zen Planner. Get signed up as soon as possible so we can get a head count to Jen. And don’t forget, it would be great if everyone in attendance can contribute to the festivities by bringing a snack or beverages. Invite all of your family and friends to donate and join us too. All fitness levels can participate. Even if they choose to not workout they can just watch and cheer and eat some grub. We’ll have a donation jar around too.

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

Skill Work/Practice

3 Rounds

5 Forward Rolls
15 Hollow Rocks
30 seconds or max Handstand Hold

then,

5 Rounds for time

10 Overhead Squats, 95/65lbs
10 Clapping Push-Ups
20 Sit-Ups

OUR MISSING CROSSFITTERS ARE BACK!

It’s been a wonderful beginning to the week! We’ve had a few members of our CrossFit Fresno Family missing in action for a while for this reason or that. It was so warming to our hearts to see them all return. Erica took about a month off to focus on finishing up the semester. Jordan was gone for like a whole year and he’s back for the summer. Adam had some knee issues that are now on the mend. Lisa was hanging out in Colorado for a couple of weeks. Kristal decided to take a little time off to get married and stuff, no big. Dan A. was out for a month doing some secret federal agent training across the country, God Bless Dan! And we expect some of our college CrossFitters to come back for the summer after spending the past year getting educated. It’s going to be a great summer!

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

Snatch Pull 3-3-3-3-3 (Focus: Aggressive triple extension and big shrug, keeping the arms like ropes.)

then,

CrossFit Games Open Workout 11.1

10 min AMRAP

30 Double-Unders
15 Power Snatch, 75/55lbs

We’ve done snatch and clean pulls just a few times now. We’re looking to emphasis the first and second pulls without getting under the bar. This is a great movement to work on getting away from the bad habit of pulling early with the arms. If you find you’re still pulling early with the arms, then you should go heavier. The bar should be traveling no higher than around the bottom of your ribs.

LT. MICHAEL P. MURPHY

MURPH IS LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY

This coming Monday is Memorial Day Murph! We hope all of you who will be in town have made your $35 donation at the Memorial Day Murph site and are all signed up on Zen Planner. This fantastic fundraiser is going to be a lot of fun with a lot of good times and good food too. While the very generous Jen along with her brother and their peeps will be catering some serious tri-tip sandwiches, fancy shrimp and plum skewers, and a tasty salad, this is also a pot luck. So we hope everyone else in attendance can bring anything from snacks to adult beverages (and otherwise). Let us know what you can contribute.

Don’t forget to tell all of your family and friends about it too. This fundraiser is open to EVERYONE. They just have to donate and sign-up. The workout can be modified to suit any ability and level of fitness. Remember this is all about paying tribute to our soldiers past and present and raising money. Even if they don’t want to do the workout, we hope you’ll encourage them to register to make the donation anyway and they’ll still receive a t-shirt.

On to the WOD! Let’s continue to get those running legs ready for Murph and through some burpees in for kicks.

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

6 Rounds for time

400m Run
25 Burpees

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

Back Squats 5-5-5

then,

8 Rounds for time

4 Handstand Push-Ups
8 Ring Rows
16 Lunge Walk Steps

THANKS FAMILY & FRIENDS!

We had another great Family and Friends day, this time we had a perfect 1:1 ratio of Family and Friends.  Thanks to those of you for joining us for our Family and Friends Workout!  We hope it isn’t the last we see of you!

FAMILY & FRIENDS DAY IS BACK

Hope you’re joining us for our monthly Complimentary Family & Friends workout on Saturday! This is your chance to give CrossFit a try and see what it’s like to be a part of our CrossFit Fresno Family. As with all of our workouts, the exercises that we will be doing can be modified to suit anyone’s ability. The workout will be done as a team so you can strategize how to get through it together, help each other out, and push each other to do better. CrossFit really can work for anyone, so long as your willing to work too. Please arrive at least 10 minutes early to fill out our waiver. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Family and Friends Sign-up

9AM:  Regular CrossFit Class (members only)

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

Skill Work

Kettlebell Snatch

then,

7 Rounds for time

10 Deadlifts, (1.5/1)xBody Weight
10 Toes-to-Bar
400m Run

1015AM:  FAMILY & FRIENDS – Team WOD TBA

ABOUT MEMORIAL DAY MURPH

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE: Anyone. You don’t have to be a Navy SEAL (it just helps…)

WHAT IS MDM: A yearly Memorial Day Fundraiser based on a workout called “Murph” hosted at venues all over the country

WHEN: It is meant to be done on Memorial Day, however, can be done anytime the week before or after.

WHERE: Wherever you live. Many Crossfit gyms are hosting events, but it can be done anywhere you can run, do pull-ups, push-ups and squats.

WHY: To honor fallen military members with our pain and sweat, (some tears and blood too I’m sure), and to raise money for charities supporting military causes.

HOW MUCH: Registration is $35, and includes an awesome event shirt made by FORGED clothing. Register HERE.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO: All profits go to four worthy charities. We have ZERO paid staff and little overhead (shirts, shipping and some banking fees).

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

2012 OC Throwdown WOD 1

1-3-5-7-9

Muscle-Ups
Squat Clean to Overhead, 225-205-185-155-135/155-140-125-105-90lbs

The original time limit was 10 minutes, we will let you go as long as 20 minutes.  If you do go longer than 10 minutes make note of your score at 10 minutes, you will then have two scores, your partial 10 minute and either a finishing time or the partial 20 minute score.

One of the charities that will benefit from this fundraiser is the Wounded Warrior Project.

NEXT FAMILY & FRIENDS WORKOUT SATURDAY, May 19TH at 1030AM

Let all of your family and friends know that it’s time to give CrossFit Fresno a try.  Our next complimentary Family and Friends workout is this Saturday at 1030AM.  To reserve a spot go to Zen Planner.  Space is limited.

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

Skill Work/Practice:

Turkish Get-ups
L-Sits
Skin-the-Cats

then,

6 rounds, each for time

500m Row

Rest as needed between efforts.

We last did this workout February 17, 2012

We all can always use reminders of good rowing technique.