Written in the first person by:
Ronnie Teasdale

CrossFit Mean Streets is located in Downtown LA. Downtown LA is not a family friendly place. It is a place that even dogs have a hard time living in. Poor things have to wipe their ass on concrete. Our gym has a style that does not cater to the soccer mom. We are not a family gym. There is no “no-cussing” rule and on a daily basis we must get rid of random homeless people that come stumbling in, usually trying to sell stolen goods (this week, I had different guys try selling me some sort of construction chains, a “nice leather jacket”, weed, and “Oh you have a computer,…. I have a ter ter ter ter ma ma ter terma terma”).

Our gym is a gym where work gets done. Hard, dirty: work.

With that being said we are attraction a hefty supply of people who want to be athletic. Hardcore Competitive people. People that all want to know what everybody else’s times are and want to beat it.

We are happy to welcome the competition. As coaches who are competitive we love the heart. This competitive atmosphere is causing some inefficiencies though. And those inefficiencies will addressed here.

Many of you have expressed your desire to be competitive at the sport of CrossFit. To this I say that I am seeing a trend that I must stomp to the ground before it gets out of hand. And this is the trend of putting your score in practice as a priority above all else.

I am here to tell you that the scores in your workout log mean NOTHING on the day of competition.

I know that our gym expansion just happened a few months ago. Which means most of our members are a few months old or brand new to CrossFit. But there is no excuse for short cutting standards because you want to go 1 min faster.

I see people not going down all the way on pushups. I see squat depths that are barely countable. I see jerks not being completed, box jumps without hip extensions, I see people trying to figure out shortcuts for every wod so their name goes up on the white board with the fastest time.

I yell, I scream, I stomp on people’s backs to get their chest to the ground. But I see that competition is driving this sloppy habit.

I have been to many CrossFit gyms to workout. And I see the same thing everywhere. But I go the distance, I make sure my chest is hitting the ground every pushup, I touch down with 2 hands on GHD sit-ups, I come up extra high on sit-ups, I take the extra half second to hold the top of the jerk, which on more cases then not can cost me the “win”. I do this weather or not I work out with people or not. ….But I would rather lose in a box because I was going above and beyond the required standards so that during competition I get zero reps taken away from me.

….. and, I get a better chance of standing on the podium when all is done, at 1st place. Because during a competition they WILL take reps away from you. There will be a judge watching every rep. And it will get in your head. You may not know what it is like to go to full range of motion and you will lose seconds off your time. And believe me,… it comes down to seconds.

Lets be clear. I am not talking about form. I know form goes out the window when a stop watch is involved. And I like that to a certain percentage. If you are using perfect form during a met-con,… then most likely you aren’t going hard enough. What I am pointing out here is standards. Every workout has them. We work on the honor system in this gym, …and its time to start seeing some honor. Chest to the deck means chest to the deck, every single rep… even if it takes you 45 min.

If you are not in this gym to be competitive but want to just get generally healthier this is for you also. Everything we teach is functional. It is functional to go all the way down in a pushup. No where ever will you find yourself having to push yourself up from floating in the middle of the air. It just wont happen. So weather you are here to compete or to live healthier, one thing is certain: Your life depends on how well you train, and short cuts will hinder you.

So this is a challenge. To do everything to the standards that we know are correct. To not count the missed wall ball shot. To make sure your feet get up on the box jump. To know that your chin must get above the bar on pullups. To thrust your hips to full extension at the top of every squat. To hold 1RM jerks for 3 seconds. To hold that kettlebell straight over head every swing. To make sure you can hear your chest hit the ground at the bottom of those burpees. To turn out at the bottom of muscle ups. To not count “almost”….Don’t let your self down people.

Weekend Schedule of Events:

-There will be no classes Sat, Sunday, and Monday
-Intro class is on Friday at 7:00pm

9-3-10

Warm Up:

2-3 minutes of cumulative L-sit hold

Skill

3 sets of max reps Ring Dips

WOD

Beginner:
100 scaled pullups
or
50 real pullups

Soon to be Badass:
75 real pullups

Badass:
100 pullups

Start the pullups with the clock. You get one minute to do as many pullups as you can. After the minute is up you are to run 1 lap (1/3 mile). Come back and you get 1 full minute to do as many pullups as possible in the next minute. After this run again,… and so on and so on until your number of pull-ups is completed.

……Oh by the way,… if you are wondering if the above posting was written for you,… it probably was. There should be no question that every rep you do counted.

CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown LA…. Has Rickey the pirate lost his Hat?

Written in the first person by Ronnie Teasdale.

Here is a random unfinished text file I just found on my laptop. I remember starting this and never finish it. I was going to finish but I like it better unfinished:

“Foods” that are commonly thought of as healthy but are really just killing you

low fat yogurt
cereal
rice cakes
fruit juice
vegetable juice
brown rice
milk
whole wheat and every single grain

Lets start with Dairy. The milk industry spends billions of dollars a year in their advertisements and lobbying of this acid producing substance.

Milk is usually drank for its protein and calcium. Most manufactures take the fat out of milk, and pasteurize it killing anything good that could come from drinking milk raw.

If pasteurized milk were feed to a calf, it would die.

What is calcium and why do we need it.

Dairy is not needed for calcium. In fact it robs our body of calcium

The more acidic our body the less calcium we are able to absorb and hold in. The more alkaline we are the less calcium we need because our body will harbor calcium, this is a natural response.

Alkaline/Acid balance has a lot to do with how good we keep in nutrients

Green leafy vegetables are excellent sources of calcium

United states by far consumes the most milk in the world. We have the highest rate of osteoporosis.

Lactose intolerant peeps

milk |milk|
noun
an opaque white fluid rich in fat and protein, secreted by female mammals for the nourishment of their young.

-if you are reading this then you are too old to be fed milk from your mothers breasts. Also if you are on this website you are probably sane enough to not suckle from the teat of another species. But that is in fact what you are doing when you drink milk bought in stores.

Juices

In almost every health food store you will find juices. Most even have their own juicer and also sell them.

Antioxidants are actually produced by our own bodies. So any unnatural additives, via supplements or FRUIT YEAR ROUND EASILY AVAILABLE TO EVERY PERSON THAN CAN SCROUNGE UP 99 cents a lbs. will and does send a signal to our body to quit producing its own natural antioxidants.

Juices have fiber removed and are unnatural

Scan antioxidant in wikipedia,… it does not have good things to say about supplementing them.

Pomegranate juice is everywhere and claims to be heart healthy

juicing fruits makes for a super concentrated liquid packed with nutrients and sugar. The nutrients in the juices are what the people selling juices want you to focus on. And yes drinking orange juice will give you a hefty supply of vitamin C. The sugar (usually fructose) in the juice will make it into your blood stream faster than eating spoonfuls of table sugar. And what we know from the

WHat does Heart healthy mean?

healthy |ˈhelθē|
adjective ( healthier , healthiest )
in good health: : feeling fit and healthy.
• ( of a part of the body) not diseased : healthy cells.
• indicative of, conducive to, or promoting good health : a healthy appetite | a healthy balanced diet.
• (of a person’s attitude) sensible and well balanced : a healthy contempt for authority.
• figurative in a good condition : the family is the basis of any healthy society.
• desirable; beneficial : healthy competition.
• of a satisfactory size or amount : making a healthy profit.

food is an industry

money is the reason behind most food marketing not health

high fructose corn syrup is cheap, and inedible.

corn is processed in america

we are exporting disease to the rest of the world

Scare tactics are used to promote the sales of food that is high profit and poison

……………

….. OK, so hope you liked that half an article. Yes I know it is unfinished, and yes I know I have incomplete thoughts, and yes I know I say things without proving them…. I like it better that way.

I realize that most of my diet advice has a lot of “don’ts”. I wish it were different, and I really like to focus on the positive of things. So here is a quick list of do’s:

Do eat animals
do eat fatty animals
do eat fatty animals every meal
do not listen to people that say not to eat fatty animals,…. especially if they are a fatty animal themself!

…Golden!

On to real news:

Here is a study. It cracks me up that people really need to study this stuff. It reminds me of my 9th grade social studies teacher that wouldn’t turn the lights off when we would watch movies. His reasoning: “Studies confirm that it is easier to fall asleep when the lights are off compared to when the lights are on”. Really Mr. Schmidt??? Really! You need a study for that…. How about: “It is proven that you aren’t taking this job seriously anyways because you just want to teach so you can coach the football team”,… and that is why we get to watch movies all the time.

So here is one Artificially Sweetened Soft Drinks Linked to Preterm Delivery . There is really no reason to read past the title. Message is clear:

Do Not Eat Science!

WOD hungy??:

Here ya go 9-2-10

Strength:

Thruster off of back
1-1-1-1-1-1-1

WOD:

Badass: squat clean thruster century

100 dumbell squat clean thrusters
-5 burpees every minute on the minute.

Soon to be Badass: squat clean century

100 dumbell squat clean
-4 burpees every minute on the minute.

-Workout is for time and stops when the 100 is finished. This is a good WOD to do when you all go out of town this weekend for Labor day. It can be done with any size dumbbell, its going to hurt no matter what. You can also use a rock, sandbag, gallon of milk,… it can be done with anything.

CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown LA….. Where taking a breath of fresh air only happens indoors next to the air filter.

WOD 9-1-10:

Diane

21-15-9

Deadlift 225/135
Handstand Pushup

CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown Los Angeles …. where one doesn’t have to travel to a park to go camping.

It Reads it:

How often should I train

Westside Barbell Articles

Squatting to Poo

Strength

Power Clean:

5-5-3-3-1

WOD:

Tie a five-pound plate to hang an honest 18″ above your tiptoe reach and complete 5 rounds for time of:

50 Jump and touch
40 Squats
30 Sit-ups
20-Push-ups
10 Pull-ups

CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown LA …… where parking tickets cost just as much as speeding tickets

Whole foods is getting out of hand. They are making everything seem healthy. From the millions of snack choices made from agave, to the food bars and the canned coconut water…Even at whole foods one must be careful what one buys.

Here is another with flour tortillas,… that apparently flush fat?…Flush fat where?

-Justin does a fine job of modeling redunculous food doesn’t he?

And one more. This “box of tea” was bought for me by someone. Obviously they know I am insane about my diet, and I know it was a good gesture. I kind of feel bad putting this out there,… but it was sitting by my desk when I was writting this. It was supposed to be healthy…. And the front says “Unsweetened”:

But the Ingredients say something different.

What is Maltodextrin?

Who knows?

You can read about it here

It is obviously man made (processed) and a sweetener.

So thats all we need to know: Fail

You cannot just:
-give your tea a Japanese name,
-Write some Japanese characters
-put some lies on the front of box
and say it is healthy for you.

You should be careful people.

Know how your meat is being fed.

And only buy whole foods.

If science is involved, it is usually bad.

WOD 8-30-10:

For time:
Run 1500 meters
63 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood
36 Pull-ups
Run 1000 meters
42 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood
24 Pull-ups
Run 500 meters
21 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood
12 Pull-ups

CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown LA…..Where “rush-hour” is all time outside of 2am-5am

Massacre:

Warm Up:

Snatch Skills Barbell Complex

6 rounds (45-95)

4 reps of each:

-Power Snatch
-Snatch Push Press
-Overhead Squat
-Snatch Balance
-Squat Snatch

Mobility:

K Star’s Mobility WOD from Sat:

Strength:

1 RM Snatch (land below parallel)

Strength WOD

-not For Time

-16 Snatches at 70% 1RM
-32 Blind folded Overhead Squats with 75lbs (use your tshirt,… girls, -you too)
-16 Snatches at 70% 1RM

High Intensity

Southwest Regionals 2010 Floater WOD:

For Time
20 185lbs Push Press/Jerk
40 Burpees, Jump laterally over your bar each burpee. Standard is clap above head, arms do not have to get behind ears.

Cool Down:

-Do not skip out on this,… the point of this is to work out all of the over extension of the spine done in the workout:

50 knees to elbows
-every time you drop down from bar get into child’s pose.

CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown LA….. Even the Pigeons are Mean

PreWOD

3 rounds:

Greatest Stretch X 1 each side
Row 35ish strong pulls
50 double unders
15 Pass throughs
15 PVC Overhead Squats
15 Ring Dips
15 Unfamiliar Pullups
15 Kettlebell Side Raises

WOD:

21-18-15-12-9-6 and 3 rep rounds of:
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds
Push jerk, 75 pounds

Post WOD:

10 minutes of stretching, SMR, or mobility exercises

CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown LA……. Smog Central

10 photos capturing moments of spontaneous badassery!”

8-26-26

Fran Tri-Tip
-Turn on Smooth Jazz
-Start the Clock

Do Fran at the start, 10 minute mark, and 20 minute mark

Score is Total Time working.

-Fran should be scaled to finish within 10 minutes.

CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown Los Angeles ……where white people and asians take pictures of buildings as if they have never seen one before.

Website is here

Mobility is almost everything,… if you can’t move you cannot do anything. Everyone make sure they come to the stretching class tonight (thursday) at 8pm.

WOD:

For time:
50 Box jumps 24 (inch box),
50 Jumping pull-ups,
50 Kettlebell swings (1 pood),
Walking Lunge 50 steps,
50 Knees to elbows,
50 Push press (45 pounds),
50 Back extensions,
50 Wall ball shots (20 pound ball),
50 Burpees,
50 Double unders.

CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown LA…… where the buses advertise T.V. shows,…. because that is obviously the most important thing

-You never know what life is going to bring you. It is important to go 100% everytime you are at the gym. Cause you never know when some old fat hag is going to pick you up and try and expire you.

Strength

Back Squat

5-3-1

WOD 8-25-10

30 Muscle Ups for Time

-If you cannot do muscle ups:
-120 Pullups
-120 Ring Dips

CrossFit.com Videos

The following demo videos are from CrossFit.com and are hosted there. To see more exercise videos visit their video page.

• 30 Muscle-ups for Time (Pat Sherwood), Jan 3 08
  
  mov – wmv
• Muscle-up/False Grip Demo
  
  wmv

CrossFit Journal Articles

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CrossFit Journal.
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• The Muscle-up
• The Moves
• Muscle Up Training Progression

  CrossFit Mean Streets
  Downtown LA……. Don’t stay in THAT hotel,…. its not even a hotel!

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