It is always important to look at and learn from other peoples stories so they can inspire us along our own health and fitness journey. Now not everything will work the same for everyone that's why keep a constantly varied approach is so important but Chris in this article provides some great points of advice I thought we should share. This weeks weekend read is from Barbell Shrugged Coach Chris Moore...enjoy.

http://daily.barbellshrugged.com/fat-and-back-again/

The Bring It On CrossFit Kids School Holiday Program is BACK again this school holidays with more fun, more entertainment to keep the kids occupied and more team/skill building games teaching kids valuable lessons about fitness, health and community! Bookings are essential so please email bringitoncrossfit@gmail.com to book your spot!

Ok team it is test week once again. We will be throwing a whole bunch of physical tests your way in order to measure your fitness and progression. Our goal is to gather as much observable (you can take an actual measurement), measurable (it’s something that can be measured) and repeatable (it can be repeated at a later date) data covering as broad fitness adaptations as possible across the week. Through CrossFit we do this all the time as we are constantly recording results and comparing them to past results, but test week allows us to add more structure to our testing and planning in the future.

Test week is also a great opportunity for you to set some personal health and fitness goals e.g. Adding 5kg to your 1RM Back Squat, or just simply knowing what your maxes are to work from in future WODs.

This week we will be testing the following:

Monday: 1RM Back Squat, 1RM Deadlift & 1RM Press (Absolute Strength)

Tuesday: 1RM Bench Press (Absolute Strength), “Helen” (Anaerobic Endurance/Stamina)

Wednesday: 1RM Front Squat (Absolute Strength), “Fran” (Anaerobic Endurance)

Wednesday 7pm: 1RM Snatch (Applied Strength/Coordination/Power)

Thursday: 1RM Clean & Jerk (Applied Strength/Coordination/Power), 2.4km Run (Stamina/Aerobic Endurance), ME Burpee Box Jumps in 5 Mins (Aerobic Endurance)

Friday: “HERO Chipper WOD” (All Physical Skills) *Surprise WOD.

Please note test week is a great opportunity to test 1RM’s and benchmark WODs (Objective tests) but does not give a full representation of improvements made over the past cycle. Subjective results are also important. For example, across the past 14 week cycle (Wendler) I have observed a very high percentage of our members range of movement and technique improved when squatting/deadlifting/pressing sub maximal weights of upto 90% of their 1RMs for multiple reps. This is something that will transition well into CrossFit style WOD’s but is hard to objectively measure. The majority of BIOCF members who have stayed consistent in their training and completing the Wendler and BIOCF WODs over the past couple of months are observably making reps cleaner and more efficient, eliminating the number of ‘junk reps’ when completing WOD’s. This may be attributed to an increase in sub maximal strength/endurance, flexibility, addition Olympic Weightlifting classes and consistency of the Wendler Program.

The primary goal of the next cycle (8 weeks) is to continue to develop absolute strength and then apply this strength to more non-conventional strength development movements that have regular appearances in CrossFit WODs (e.g. Thruster/Lunges) and applied strength movements (e.g Power Clean/Snatch). The next cycle will continue to utilize the 5-3-1 approach, incorporating a deload week after every three week wave. This allows you to progressively increase the intensity and load used each week, and spend more time working on particular exercises to develop movement mastery & efficiency. We will also be focusing more on upper body bodyweight movements to help develop gymnastic bar work and core strength, and of course we will be working on developing all other areas too as we want to be well rounded athletes! More fun too...e.g chippers, Hero WODs, Partner WODs!

"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard...is what makes it great."

Coach Jared.

Once again another inspirational performance by some of the Bring It On CrossFit members, this time at the CrossFit Richmond Grassroots Team Competition! The 'A-Team' was made up of Jacob, Simone, Lou and myself, and I would have to say I had to work pretty hard to keep up with these three!
Overall we finished 21st out of a very strong field of 42, with many of the big name CrossFit affiliates represented at the competition. The first WOD involved 6 Rounds For Time working in pairs (3 rounds each interval style) of 12 x Box Jumps @ 24/20, 9 x Power Snatch @ 42.5/30 and 6 x Lateral Burpees over bar. This one was definitely a lung burner involving short, fast bursts and really needed to be unbroken if you wanted to post a quick time. We finished this WOD in about 9 mins, only a minute off the quickest time posted so that was a pretty good start. (having being sick the week before this one did almost kill me :(
Up second we had an individual, team WOD where everyone completed one round each for time. One round consisted of 30 x KB Swings @ 24/16, 15 x Thrusters @ 50/35 & 20/15 Pull Ups. Jacob started us off and set a quick pace, which was maintained when Simone hit the floor second. I went third and Lou brought it home. Have to say it was an awesome effort from Lou who had knee concerns going in and managed 15 below parallel thrusters at 35kg no problems! This WOD tested your grip endurance and required a little strategy on how you were going to break up reps and save your forearms for the pull ups. Again we posted a great time, coming 3rd in our heat!
The last WOD (for us) was my favourite (only saying that after it was completed). This one involved trying to play to your teams individual strengths. It was broken into 2 parts: Part 1 had a 12 minute time cap and was for time, 30 x Clean & Jerks @ 60/42.5 (Grace), 200 x Double Unders, 60 x Calorie Row and 50 x Toes to Bar. One person per exercise and relay format. I started with 'Grace' and somehow managed a PR at 2:15, then Lou smashed the Double Unders knocking out 70 unbroken in her first set. Simone was on the rower and took care of those calories in under 2:30 which is very fast, followed by Jacob cruising through the Toes to Bar! We finished this WOD 2nd in our heat in just over 10 minutes, only just over a minute behind the quickest time of the day!
Part 2 was the heavy lift which was a 3RM Shoulder to Overhead from the floor with a 5 minute cap. Both Simone and Lou put up an impressive 55kg each, while Jacob hit a comfortable 90kg and Jared 100kg. I think the heaviest male lift was 115kg and female 80kg for the day so we held our own up against the competition.
It was definitely a very enjoyable day competing along side the A-Team, and was awesome to have some of the BIOCF crew come up and support us so thank you for making the drive! There was a very high standard of competition that we were up against and I was proud on how our team represented Bring It On CrossFit across all the events...so I'm looking forward to the next comp as the BIOCF Team gets even stronger!