Our popular Bring a Friend (or two) Days are back this week on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On those days you can bring your friends in for any class. Here are a few things to help prepare your friends:

1. Send them a few articles and show them a few CrossFit videos (just let them know that they won’t be doing anything that intense and that the workout will be a team one).

2. Give them the address of the gym (1517 Railroad Street, Glendale), let them know where they can park, and give them this map just to make it as easy as possible.

3. Arrive with your friend about 10 minutes early to have him or her fill out the waiver. Then give your friend a tour of the gym and give them a rundown of how the class run.

4. Last, don’t ‘lose’ your friend. He or she might be pretty confused, so make sure you’re there to guide them through the class.

Let’s have fun and share some CrossFit love this week.

Annie’s first CrossFit experience was during our last Bring a Friend Day.

Monday

All Levels and Intermediate Classes

Skill: Front squats

1-10-1-20

Workout:

12 minute AMRAP of:

10 pull-ups
12 front squats (115#/78# for women)
10 clapping push-ups

Beginner Class

Skill: Front squats

3-3-3-3-3

Workout:

12 minute AMRAP of:

10 pull-ups
12 front squats
10 clapping push-ups

Okay, maybe you’re still bummed you missed out on tickets for The 2013 CrossFit Games in July.  I know, they sold out pretty quickly, and you’re not about to shell out $500 to a scalper for tickets.  Sucks for sure.  But here’s the good news, the Southern California CrossFit Games Regional competition kicks off this Friday and runs through the weekend.

The Regional competition is the penultimate phase of the CrossFit Games competition season, and we have some of the best athletes in the CrossFit world competing in our region this weekend.  Here are a few athletes to watch at the Regional:

Josh Bridges, second place at the 2011 CrossFit Games, is the top male in our region and has a legitimate shot at beating Rich Froning this year at the Games.

Kenneth Leverich finished 17th at last year’s CrossFit Games.  This guy is a beast.  Check out this video of him doing a WOD called Godzilla.

Kris Clever needs no introduction.  4th place in 2009, 1st place in 2010, 2nd place in 2011, 4th place in 2012…this gal is one of the best.

Andrea Ager is well known in the SoCal region and is hungry to make it to the big show as an individual competitor.  

The 2013 Southern California CrossFit Games Regional is May 17th, 18th, and 19th at the Del Mar Fairground, just north of San Diego.  Single day tickets are $15.  

Thursday

Intermediate and All Levels Class

Skill:  Back squat

5 reps at 75% of a 1 rep max

5 reps at 80% of a 1 rep max

5+ reps at 85% of a 1 rep max

Workout:

12 minute AMRAP of:

1 arm farmer’s carry (70#/53# for women)

12 burpees

6 shoulder to overhead (135#/93# for women)

Beginner Class

Skill: Push press

1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Workout:

12 minute AMRAP of:

1 arm farmer’s carry 

12 burpees

6 shoulder to overhead 

Advanced Class

A very special Trial by Fire workout to be revealed during class!  

Remember, this class is by invitation only.  If you are not an Advanced CrossFit Merge athlete, you will asked to attend the next class at 8pm.  Thanks.

We start our new schedule this week.  All evening classes now start on the hour at 5pm, 6pm, 7pm and 8pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We also have Olympic Lifting during the week on Wednesdays at 5pm, and don’t forget about Epic Workout Sundays!

Check out the entire new schedule below and on the website.

Also, mark your calendar because it’s THROWDOWN time again!

What: 4 person (2 men and 2 women) Team Throwdown

When: June 15th

Where: CrossFit Merge

Why: Because it’s going to be a prodigious!

More details to follow, but start planning and make sure you’re free that weekend.

Oh yeah, and we’re doing Fran on Monday.

All Levels & Beginner Class

Skills: 

20 minutes to find a 1 rep max thruster

Kipping practice with an easy band

Workout:

Fran

21-15-9 reps for time of:

Thrusters (95#/63# for women)

Pull-ups

Intermediate Class

Skills:

20 minutes to find a 1 rep max thruster

Butterfly pull-up practice

Workout:

Fran

21-15-9 reps for time of:

Thrusters (95#/63# for women)

Pull-ups

This is just a good story from John Welbourn about growing up, about life, and about pancakes…yep, pancakes.  Anyone that doesn’t like pancakes should be pushed in the mud, and this article includes a recipe for paleo pancakes.  

Wagon Wheels – John Welbourn

I started playing football my freshman year of high school. I was introduced to weight training the summer before as part of the football program. The first day I walked into the gym, I was 165 lbs and 6′ tall. I benched a ground breaking 115 lbs and squatted an ugly 185 lbs for 2 reps. Looking around at the seniors with full beards, I knew one thing, I needed to get stronger. I figured the easiest way to was to lift weights and try to gain weight…Read the whole article at this link.

Friday for All Classes

‘Fight Gone Bad’

3 rounds for max reps/calories of:

1 minute of max wall ball shots (20#/14# for women)

1 minute of max sumo deadlift high pulls (75#/53# for women)

1 minute of max box jumps (20″)

1 minute of max push presses (75#/53# for women)

1 minute of max calories on the rower

1 minute of rest between rounds

No rest in between movements

I’m going to let you in on a little secret, you don’t need to be here at CrossFit Merge to do CrossFit.  Gasp!

You can pretty much do CrossFit anywhere as long as you are doing varied, functional movements, at high intensity.  That’s it.  I have personally done CrossFit on an Afghanistan military base, in a cramped Brooklyn apartment, in a hotel “exercise room” and at a local park.  CrossFit can be a very accessible program, and you can definitely see results in CrossFit without being at a CrossFit gym.

One of the components of the CrossFit Merge program that makes it unique is homework.  I know a lot of you may not have entirely positive associations with the word ‘homework’ but CrossFit homework is quite useful.  Doing and practicing CrossFit on your own, during time away from the gym, will make you better.  Studying videos and reading articles that our Coaches give you, will help you get fitter.  For instance, when you come in for class and we practice the air squat, we are teaching you how to squat so that you could do it on your own if you had to.  When we spend a few minutes after class mobilizing with a lacrosse ball, we’re giving you exercises that you can do at home to improve your range of motion and recovery.  When we post videos on the blog or on Facebook, we want you to watch them and follow the tips in the videos next time you come into class.  Hopefully, no one leaves the gym after a workout and brain dumps all the skills, movements, and techniques she/he just learned.

Taking the skills you learned in class, or following the advice from your coach on how to improve on pull-ups, or reading articles from the CrossFit Journal are all homework assignments to further improve your fitness.  

Be on the lookout for the “Homework Board” at the gym.  This whiteboard will include some additional basic skills and workouts you can do on your own, away from the gym, that will help you get even fitter.

Thursday

All Classes

Skill: Timed 1 mile run

Workout:

4 rounds for time of:

5 thrusters (155#/103# for women)

10 burpees

15 box jumps (24″/20″ for women)

Go heavy on the thrusters, over 80% of your 1 rep max.

We are just one week away from starting our new class schedule on May 13th.  The new class schedule will now have three different levels: beginner, intermediate, and now advanced.  Here’s a description of the different level classes.

Beginner Classes will focus on the 9 fundamental movements of CrossFit, basic gymnastics (pull-ups, push-ups, dips), the kettlebell swing, wall ball shot, thruster, as well as running, rowing, and jumping rope.

Classes will still include a Warm-up, a Skill, and a WOD, but the classes will focus on  fundamental movements in order for someone to build a solid foundation for basic movement.

Make no mistake, the classes and workouts will still be hard, as the intensity has not changed, but all the movements will be doable for someone very new to CrossFit.

Intermediate Classes will also focus on the above but also include Olympic lifts and more technical gymnastics movements like handstands, muscle-ups, and levers.  Workouts may include heavier loading of weights and more than one technical movement in a WOD, e.g. clean and jerks coupled with double-unders in a WOD.

Advanced Classes will build on the intermediate classes but will move at a faster pace and include workouts with several higher skilled movements.  Participants are expected to be knowledgable and proficient in nearly all CrossFit movements.  Participants will also have developed a high strength and conditioning base.

Remember, the new class schedule starts Monday, May 13th.

Monday

Intermediate Class

Skill:  kipping handstand push-up practice

Workout:

‘Diane’

21-15-9 reps of:

Deadlifts (225#/153# for women)

Handstand push-ups

Beginner and All Levels Class

Skill: Deadlift

3-3-3-3-3

Workout

10 minute AMRAP of:

10 dumbbell hang power cleans (40#/20# for women)

10 push-ups

What’s better than CrossFit?  CrossFitting with your Merge friends.  And what’s even better than that?  CrossFitting with your Merge friends and with your non-CrossFitting, but very curious friends that have been begging to try a class with you.  ’Bring a Friend (or two) Days’ are back!

May 23rd, 24th, and 25th, all day, for all classes, you can bring one or two friends with you to class.  Spread the word to your friends because these are always a blast.  

Friday

All Classes

Skill:  Press

1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Workout:

For time:

Row 400 meters

Then 3 rounds of:

20 wall ball shots (20#/14# for women)

15 kettlebell swings (70#/53# for women)

Finish with a 400 meter run

Big news fellow Mergers, we are changing the class schedule and adding some really fun and challenging new classes.  The new class schedule will begin Monday, May 13th.  Take a look below and read on for additional details on the classes.  

You’ll note that we have a couple of brand new classes in some brand new times.  First, because you love Olympic Lifting so much on Saturday, we now have it on Wednesday as well.  Hone your skills with the snatch and clean & jerk and become more proficient in our most technical barbell movements; this class is open to all Intermediate athletes and above.

Next, Sunday has one All Levels class from 10 to 11:30am.  Because sometimes one hour just isn’t enough time to do some really epic workouts, we created a brand new class to do some really tough and longer WODs.  On Sundays you can now expect workouts like the CrossFit Total, or perhaps some hero workouts like Murph.  Sunday can be a day of rest, or a day of CrossFit Merge epicness.

And last but not least, Thursday, 7 to 8pm is our new Advanced class.  Why an Advanced class you ask?  Because several of you are ready for the challenge and many of you are close to that level and this should provide that little extra push to get you there.  As you continue to improve, we want to continue to challenge you to fully reach your potential.

Please note that we are going to try this schedule out for a few months to see how it goes.  We may make some changes and please feel free to talk to us if you have any questions.  We always welcome your feedback. 

Wednesday

Intermediate Class

Skill: 20 minutes to find a new max snatch

Workout:

For time:

10 hang snatches (75#/53# for women)

10 ring dips

Run the short block

15 hang snatches

15 ring dips

Run the short block

20 hang snatches

20 ring dips

Run the short block

Power Hour

12 Tabata rounds (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off) of:

Back squats (185#/113# for women)

Score is max total reps

Finisher

Atlas Stone – ground to shoulder

Beginner Class

Skill: Overhead squat

3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3

Workout:

10 kettlebell snatches (35#/26# for women)

10 hand release push-ups

Run the short block

15 kettlebell snatches

15 hand release push-ups

Run the short block

20 kettlebell snatches

20 hand release push-ups

Let’s take it back a little with this older school workout, “The Chief.”

Nothing against these Chiefs, but we’re going to have a lot better movement than what you saw in that video.

Intermediate Class

Skill: hang power cleans

2-2-2-2-2-2

Workout:

The Chief

5 rounds, each a 3 minute AMRAP of:

3 power cleans (135#/95# for women)

6 push-ups

9 air squats

Rest 1 minute between rounds

Beginner and All Levels Class

Skill:

1 press + 4 push presses

5 sets, increasing weight each set

Workout:

Lil Chief

5 rounds, each a 3 minute AMRAP of:

6 sumo deadlift high pulls (70#/44# kettlebells)

6 push-ups

9 air squats

Rest 1 minute between rounds

Monday

Intermediate Class

Workout:

7 minute AMRAP of:

15 push presses/jerks (115#/73# for women)

15 burpees

2 minutes rest

7 minute AMRAP of:

10 front squats (115#/73# for women)

10 hand release push-ups

2 minutes rest

7 minute AMRAP of:

5 power snatches (115#/73# for women)

5 chest to bar pull-ups

Score AMRAPs separately

All levels/Beginner Class

Workout:

7 minute AMRAP of:

15 dumbbell push presses (40#/25# for women)

15 burpees

2 minutes rest

7 minute AMRAP of:

10 dumbbell front squats (40#/25# for women)

10 hand release push-ups

2 minutes rest

7 minute AMRAP of:

5 dumbbell power snatches (40#/25# for women)

5 pull-ups

Score AMRAPs separately