First and Last Name
Kristina Shigley
Where ya from originally?
Glendora, CA
How long have you been with CrossFit Las Vegas?
Since October 2010
What’s your favorite WOD?
AMRAPS & Fight Gone Bad
What’s your least favorite WOD?
J.T.
What were you doing before CrossFit?  How did you hear about CrossFit and/or CrossFit Las Vegas?
Before CFLV I was doing what I like to call “The Shape Magazine Workout” an hour on the elliptical or treadmill then doing 10 – 15 lbs weights 3 to 5 x a week. I loved to work out, but would get bored with my routines.

I had heard about CrossFit from the guy I was dating, but was convinced it wasn’t for me. CF just sounded like a ridiculous cult to me. Heavy weights? 15 min workouts? Obsessed members? No thank you!

About six months before I joined CFLV I hit a rough spot in my personal life, and due to unhealthy habits lost 25 to 30 lbs. At first I was pretty excited about the effortless weight loss; I had no appetite and didn’t work out at all, but soon found I had lost one of my favorite features, my booty.

What made me finally decide to give CFLV a try was a day at the pool with Dezirae and Tina. They told me, with some deadlifts and squats, I would have my booty back in no time. I went to the next share the pain and let’s just say I had to apologize and retract my “cult” statements to a certain someone.
Give us some insight as to your thoughts after your first workout at CrossFit Las Vegas.
My first WOD at share the pain was a death by dumbbell push press and burpees. At first I thought, “that’s it? This is the ‘kick ass workout’ everyone is talking about?” But by the end, my arms felt like they were going to fall off and I was exhausted…in less than 15 minutes!

I was hooked. I signed up right there. I knew this is the kind of thing I needed in my life to relieve stress and get back into healthy habits.
Tell us a little about then vs. now with regard to your performances on a couple of the benchmark WODs, ie Fran or Cindy.
Back then, I don’t think I could even put more than 55 lbs over my head or do anything upper body. I couldn’t do pull-ups, push-ups, and I had never done any O-lifts. When I would lift, I was afraid of the bar and would daintily set it down.

Now, I can put well over 100 lbs over my head more than once. I did all 100 push-ups in Angie on my toes, pull-ups are easier and O-lifts are some of my favorite things to do.
Do you have any special or favorite CrossFit Las Vegas memories/moments?
Doing Tough Mudder in Big Bear with the CFLV team. New friends, 10 miles, 25 obsticals, and getting dirty. What’s not to like?
What advice would you give to a newbie or someone just joining CrossFit Las Vegas?
Don’t be intimidated by workouts, lifts, skills, people, whatever. Everything can be scaled and someday you might be the person who the newbies are intimidated by.

Push yourself. You’ll feel better knowing you gave everything you had finishing last, than only a little and finishing first, giving up, or cheating.

Get to know everyone that you can in the gym. CFLV has an awesome community full of fun, friendly, and encouraging people.
And finally (and most importantly) Who is the best and most incredible coach at CrossFit Las Vegas?  Explain/defend your answer.
This is an easy one; all of them! Duh! They all are amazing for different reasons. I could list my favorite characteristics of each one, but I think I have been long winded enough.

We’re still waiting for your Athlete Profile!!!

WOD
Press
3-3-3-3-3

4 RFT of:
30 Overhead Lunges
400m Run

QUICK NOTE:
This Saturday’s Kettlebell class has been canceled.

Sleep: An Undervalued Ergogenic Aide – Dallas Hartwig, Performance Menu

Town Hall Meeting Coming Up
We will be holding another Town Hall Meeting for all our members.  We’ve moved the date to February 26th.  The Town Hall Meeting will begin at 12pm and go as long as is necessary.  We’re also looking at having everyone who comes in for the Town Hall get together for a late lunch/early dinner somewhere near the gym.

UPDATE:
Lisa Yi, co-owner of Urban Grill and a very good friend, has offered to us the opportunity to take our Town Hall gathering to the restaurant after the meeting!  It has been mentioned that there might be a role-out of a Paleo-Menu for us to sample.  If not, it will still provide us a place to eat, drink, and be merry after the meeting!  Thanks Lisa!

For those of you who are new to the gym, we like to hold these a few times a year to get feedback from all of.  We also are looking for you all to bring any questions and/or concerns you have to the table!  Save the date and meet us at the gym at 1pm!

WOD
Pistols
7/7 x 7

3 x 5min AMRAP of:
6 DB Thrusters
5 Pull Ups
4 Burpees

Yesterday, someone asked me after I had left the gym, “What is the benefit of a workout like that?”  They were referring to Jacket of Pain.  When you look at a long-winded, shoulder wrenching workout such as it was, it’s hard to figure if there even is a point to such a workout.  Let’s see what we can figure out, shall we.

Systemically, there are much better ways to develop both cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance (stamina).  There really are.  250 Push Press is indeed a touch excessive.  Workouts that involve less than 90 reps for a given movement or muscle groups are certainly a good choice for the stamina, and using sprint intervals along with moderate lifting do a fine job of eliciting a cardiovascular response.  So why the huge overload on push press?

From a mechanical standpoint, technique will breakdown with this type of workout very quickly.  VERY.  It is in this regard that such a workout finds its purpose.  Even with the frequent rest taken in between reps of push press, maintaining correct technique is a challenge to say the least.  However, the fitter athlete will be able to maintain this technique and move the bar more efficiently.  Through that efficiency, the athlete will finish faster.

Training to the point of mechanical breakdown is not a popular topic and often a source of criticism in and of CrossFit.  However, it is an important concept to train to a point where each attempt at a movement is a concentrated effort to perform correctly.  Being able to push back the point at which such mechanical error occurs is a strong indication of effort and practice.  Being able to perform a given movement correctly under extreme fatigue and duress is strong indicator of a trainee who has put in the time needed to become as proficient and efficient as possible.

Town Hall Meeting Coming Up
We will be holding another Town Hall Meeting for all our members.  We’ve moved the date to February 26th.  The Town Hall Meeting will begin at 12pm and go as long as is necessary.  We’re also looking at having everyone who comes in for the Town Hall get together for a late lunch/early dinner somewhere near the gym.  Stayed tuned for details on that.

For those of you who are new to the gym, we like to hold these a few times a year to get feedback from all of.  We also are looking for you all to bring any questions and/or concerns you have to the table!  Save the date and meet us at the gym at 1pm!

WOD
Deadlift
3-3-3-3-3

For 12min:
1min to get 6 Squat Cleans
1min Rest

Penalty for each missed rep is 5 Burpees

The Hangover
Not the movie based here in town but a clear and succinct look at what a hangover really is.
The Hangover – CrossFit Invictus
Alcohol and Athletic Performance – The University Health Center

Some Fun Things For Us to Do Outside of the Gym
Color Run
http://thecolorrun.com/lasvegas/

First and Last Name
Mandi Lo

Where ya from originally?
Minneapolis, MN

How long have you been with CrossFit Las Vegas?
12 Months

What’s your favorite WOD?
Any WOD that makes me have to lay down at the end.

What’s your least favorite WOD?
Any WOD that makes me have to lay down at the end. haha!

What were you doing before CrossFit? How did you hear about CrossFit and/or CrossFit Las Vegas?
Before CrossFit, I was a big runner.  I ran marathons, half-marathons, 5ks, 10ks, for fun, for no fun… Dan, my boyfriend at the time, had started doing Crossfit for a few months and was obsessed.  I had just ran the Las Vegas half-marathon and just decided I didn’t want to run anymore because a) my knees were starting to develop a sharp pain every time I ran long distance and b) I was bored out of my mind.  The whole time Dan was doing CrossFit, he was explaining to me that it was 7 min workouts, 10 min workouts, MAYBE 20 min workouts, and I was thinking, THAT’S not a workout!  Who pays that kind of money to work out for 7 minutes a day??!  I would tease him endlessly.  Then I started noticing how fit he was getting in such a short amount of time.  It wasn’t just his physique, but his whole attitude and mindframe.  He was making it a point to eat healthier and he always looked forward to going to work out.  Finally, I set my envy aside and decided to give it a shot.  I was able to finagle Vili into doing a one-on-one with me for my elements class at the God-awful time of 7am, and that was when I fell in love (yes, with both Vili and CF

Give us some insight as to your thoughts after your first workout at CrossFit Las Vegas.
I loved CF from the very first class I took.  I felt this incredible sense of accomplishment after each work out.  Vili was my coach and he was so encouraging and optimistic about my future progress, it made it pretty easy for me to believe it myself.  And the WOD we did was so hard then!  I still laugh thinking about it because it seems like it would be so easy now.

Tell us a little about then vs. now with regard to your performances on a couple of the benchmark WODs, ie Fran or Cindy.
I have to say that I don’t track my workouts as closely as I should, but I can say with absolute certainty that I am way stronger and faster that I was before CrossFit.  Also, I don’t say “I can’t” or “there’s NO way!” to a work out as much I used to.

Do you have any special or favorite CrossFit Las Vegas memories/moments?
All the memories and moments I have of CFLV have been awesome!

What advice would you give to a newbie or someone just joining CrossFit Las Vegas?
Listen to the coaches – they DO know best and they will be push you to be the best that you can.

And finally (and most importantly) Who is the best and most incredible coach at CrossFit Las Vegas? Explain/defend your answer.
All of the coaches at CFLV are amazing, and I wish I had a flexible schedule to take more classes with the other coaches, but I’ve developed special bonds with Vili and Joe, who I see most.  Vili being my one-on-one coach and being the one who helped me from the beginning will always be my favorite.  And Joe is the main reason I stayed with CFLV.  I love how he teaches his classes and how he ALWAYS pushes me past the point of saying “I can’t” or “there’s NO way.”  Yeah, so he talks funny sometimes and his voice breaks when he is screaming at us and his jokes are only half-funny, but in the end, he somehow gets me to believe that I can do that last rep without dying, and that’s incredibly inspiring.

Have you filled out an Athlete Profile?!?!?

WOD
Push Press
3-3-3-3-3

Death by Bodyweight
Every minute on the minute perform:
1 Pull up
1 Push up
1 Box jump
2 Pull up
2 Push up
2 box Jump…

Add 1 rep to each movement every minute.  Go as far as you.  Workout is done when you can no longer finish all reps in the given minute.

Why Grains Are Unhealthy – Mark’s Daily Apple
Damn Dirty Grains – Robb Wolf, Performance Menu

WOD
Barbell Roll outs

4 x 200m Sprint
Then
4 x 250m Row

Anymore Excuses?!  Get your friends to an Intro Day!!!

Biomechanical Analysis of the Deadlift – Tony Leyland
Really look at Figures 8 and 9.

The Contreras Files: Volume II – t-nation.com
Top of the second page, Low Back Loads.

WOD
Bear Complex

7 x 5 of:
Power Clean into
Front Squat into
Push Press into
Back Squat into
Push Press

The follow quotes were taken directly from HyperFit USA/CrossFit Ann Arbor.

“People are what is important. People drive community. People make the training fun. People help people get better. People push people. People support people.

People are what is important.”

“Motivation is really more than going hard, it is about positive contribution to the community. Motivation is where your life energy is coming from. Motivation is a pat on the back or a kick in the pants. Motivation is leaving every place you go in life better than you found it.”

That is all!!!

WOD
21-18-15-12
Deadlift
KtE

400m Run in between deadlifts and kte’s.

How to Tell If You’re Inflamed – marksdailyapple.com
Get Off the Ibuprofen Peoples – San Francisco CrossFit

Have you filled out an Athlete Profile yet?

WOD
Front Squat
3-3-3-3-3

5 x 3min AMRAP of:
4 Power Clean
8 Ring Push Ups

 Rest 1min between rounds.