With Jackie coming up on Friday this is some great advice………. Enjoy this third article from Colin Jenkins of West Coast Strength and Conditioning: Breathing Fault #3: Focusing Too Much on Slowing Down Your Breathing Control of your breathing is very important for performance. Whether you need to slow down or increase your breathing rate at a given point, it’s best if you are fully in control. In order to be in control of your breathing, you need to have the awareness of your breathing rate and how much air you are actually getting in your lungs with each breath. The advice most coaches will provide is to “Slow down your breathing”. This advice is very good for someone who needs to regain control of themselves during a workout or who needs to generally approach workouts more methodically and keep themselves from redlining too early. Slowing down your breathing is a good thing to focus on….sometimes.  But often it is overdone to the point of diminishing returns during a workout. “I’ll get [...]

More great info on breathing during a Wod………………….   Breathing Fault #2: Breathing Into Your Chest You can learn a lot by going to a local CrossFit event and watching a variety athletes at all levels compete in a workout. If you look close enough, one of the major differences you’ll likely see between top competitors and the rest is that great athletes tend to breath into their belly while others breath into their chest. The difference between chest and belly breathing may look subtle.  However, the difference between the two breathing patterns on your ability to supply your hard-working muscles with oxygen is not subtle at all. There are three reasons why belly breathing (also known as diaphragm breathing) is more effective for CrossFit. -You will be able to more completely fill up your lungs with each breath, allowing you to get more oxygen in. Getting more oxygen in can significantly improve your performance in a CrossFit workout. Even if the weights are heavier, and the workout is not as [...]

This is a great post by my friend Colin Jenkins, owner of West Coast Strength and Conditioning.  We all could benefit from this greatly…….   The ability to breath properly is a critical component to achieving higher levels of performance. Most athletes I’ve worked with and spoken to within CrossFit seem to understand some general concepts of breathing, but typically these concepts are used in an inappropriate context. More appropriate methods to breathing are rarely, if ever, practiced. This is the first of several articles in which I’d like to cover 3  things that I see CrossFitters commonly do wrong, and give you some insights in how to effectively work on breathing as a skill during your training sessions. Breathing Fault #1: Holding Your Breath During CrossFit Workouts Many CrossFitters are already familiar with the concept of the valsalva maneuver. The valsalva maneuver is basically the process of taking a big breath and holding it throughout most, if not all, of a heavy lift. But while the valsalva maneuver is very important to lifting [...]

Do to the large classes in the beginning of the week, we are moving our free trial class from Tuesday 6:30pm to THURSDAY 6:30pm.  Tell all your curious friends that are interested in seeing what CrossFit is about to sign up online.  

Mark your calendar! April 20th and April 21st at 845am-10am (Plenty of time!). We will be participating in the CrossFit total. The CrossFit total is the sum of your 1 rep max Press, 1 rep max Backsquat, and 1 rep max Deadlift (In that order.). Here is your mission. This week lets take charge of the variables we can control. Diet, sleep, and rest. At least for this week (and for the majority of the time) lets say no to that pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, and that cold pint of Ale. Lets make sure we are sleeping well, in a completely dark room, turn the TV off. Lets make sure we are taking rest days and actually resting on those rest days! Come in Saturday or Sunday and do your best! 1 rep press   1 rep back squat   1 rep deadlift

As most of you know, we recently spent a lot of time and energy at the gym supporting and participating in the CrossFit Games Open Competition.  The Open competition was going on for 5 weeks where everyone, and anyone, could compete simultaneously on the 5 different WOD’s all around the world.   There were just under 140,000 athletes that participated in the competition.  I managed to finish 7th World-wide and #1 in the Northern California Region in my bracket. Love this Pic! In the Masters division (old guys), we were required to end up in the top 20 in each bracket in order to advance to the Games.  We don’t go to regionals.  The next time I compete will be July 22-24 in Carson CA (L.A. area near Torrance) at the Home Depot Center.  The rest of the Competitors and Teams (everyone under 40 yrs old) will compete July 24-28th. I competed in 2011 and it was a blast.  Everyone who came to watch the Games had a lot of fun.  There are tons of [...]

CIVIC CENTER IS HOSTING 13.5 GAMES OPEN WOD WITH 4 TOP CROSSFIT ATHLETES COMPETING! Next Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013, CrossFit Ready will be closed for the following class times : 3:30PM Teens 4:30PM class 5:30PM class 6:30PM class All morning classes will be good to go: 6:00AM 7:00AM 8:00Am 9:00AM   VS CrossFit Ready will be at the Civic Center in downtown Santa Cruz watching 2011/2012 Games winner, Rich Froning, and Jason Khalipa go head to head in WOD 13.5. After the men, the amazing Samantha Briggs and Camille Leblanc-Bazinet will go head to head in the same surprise workout! VS     Check online for tickets: http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/index.aspx?page=626 or watch the event live April 3rd at 5pm at Games.crossfit.com      

  This Sunday CrossFit Ready will only have one class at 9am!  Please note the changes below to the weekend. SATURDAY : 9am strength class 10am wod class 11:30am SPECIAL GAMES class (Usually on a Sunday.)   EASTER SUNDAY : 9am Partner Easter class! Monday we shall go back to our regular class schedule. http://crossfitready.com/view-class-times/