I emailed our good friend Jenika Gordon from CrossFit Westside the other day about sending me a little write up on her story involving CrossFit, getting stronger, and gaining weight and this is what she sent me:


HI Ricky,

Sorry it took me so long to write this, I just got back from training in California for 10 days.

I took the Rippetoe (Mark Rippetoe) course last October in San Diego and was blown away by Rip's program and coaching. It inspired me to put some strength on. He kept stressing "what good is it if you can run 100 miles but not lift something over your head?" ha ha. He kept saying things like that through the whole seminar. It got me thinking...what is the point of running longer or faster if I can't put something over my head or get up from a sitting position? I want to stay strong so that when I am 80 years old I can still get around on my own. And this is impossible if you don't build your strength. Another thing that definitely intrigued me was that I could get stronger in my Crossfit Workouts and do benchmark workouts like FRAN using the proper women's weights.

I had no idea what I was getting into. I started Rippetoe's program of:
Day1
Squat
Press
Deadlift

Day 2
Squat
Press
Pull ups/Squat Cleans(alternate each time)

3 warm up sets of 5 reps each, then 3 heavy sets of 5 reps (same weight).

As hard as it has been I definitely recommend this program. You need to be strong to pull yourself up, run up a mountain, climb a wall etc. I wanted to be stronger and faster at these things and putting on muscle has definitely helped. While I was training strict powerlifting for 4 months, and put on 10lbs, I still stayed pretty lean until the last 6 weeks. Not every girl has to do this. You can train heavy at least twice a week and throw in your CF workouts and you will still notice huge gains. My women clients who have been lifting heavy at least once a week, have seen increased benchmark times, but they have also noticed they get a lot leaner and stay leaner. Some of my clients can't believe that they even look the way they do. While they don't weigh any less, their body shape changes. Everybody's waist size goes down, their arms look more defined, and they look stronger, but in a athletic way rather than a bulky way.

The last thing I have noticed with myself and my clients is that everyone gets addicted to it. These girls will not miss a heavy day. They love getting bigger numbers on the lifts. Everyone. including myself, find it very rewarding, fun, have noticed huge improvements in their workouts, and have developed a new sense of discipline. This new discipline has also given them more drive and ability to push themselves in their workouts.

For me I wanted to build strength fast, so I did not do the CrossFit workouts. I did strictly powerlifting. I noticed my running went down as well as my speed. Like I said every girl does not have to do this. I just wanted to check it out. I am now back into the CF workouts and I am blowing away any benchmark workouts that include lifting. I look forward to seeing my running/speed come back.

Hope this okay Ricky. I don't know if this answered your question.
Jenika


As she mentioned in her write-up, not every girl has to follow what she does but this was rather a quick glance into the life of another female CrossFitter. If you find what she has to say interesting, you should visit her personal blog sometime to she what other things she has to say. Thanks Jenika and hope to see you in June.

Cancellation
Sorry for the inconvenience but tonight's 7:30 class will be canceled. Thanks and we'll see you on Saturday.

Fit!Omaha Expo
We also need an RSVP from those of you that are thinking about helping out with the Fitness Expo on the 12th & 13th of April. The times are as follows: April 12th from 10am to 6pm and April 13th from 11am to 5pm. We would really appreciate your help as we'll need as much of it as we can get. I will get Candice to write up a spreadsheet on different shifts so that you don't have to be there all day unless you want to. This way we will know who will be able to help out and when they will be able to be there now so that we aren't scrambling for help. Either send me an email or just let Joe, Candice, or I know when you come to class. Thanks a lot.

Midwest CrossFit Challenge
I also need to know who is going to be here during the challenge so that I can start putting together a spreadsheet on competitors. I know some of you will be out of town during either the 5th or the 26th and if this is the case but you wanted to join in on the fun, what we'll do is the week of either the 5th or the 26th if you are in town we will allow you to do any event you won't be here for, earlier in the week. So say you wont be here on the 5th but you will be here on the 3rd or 4th we will have you do the CF Total and the benchmark (if you want) and at least you will be able to compare your results with those that compete on that Saturday. Let me know if you are interested.

WOD
Rest/Benchmark Day.

Come in and try something you want or we'll pick something out for you. If you need it, take the day off. Great work on the pullups and 800's yesterday.