Local CrossFit affiliate Golden State CrossFit hosted their 7th annual “Battle on the Sunset competition on Saturday and several Diablo members decided to throw down with the local community! Pictured from left to right, top to bottom:
- Diablo’s tent camp was just like we’ve been doing for 18 years of competing.
- Zach Prieto hit the floater workout: 1 Push Press, 1 Push Jerk, 1 Split Jerk combo with 225lbs!
- Congratulations to Kendra Watters who took 2nd Place overall in the Open Category!
- And, after 2 days of illness prior to the event, Robert Dawson rallied to compete and left it all on the floor!
“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.”
Deepak Chopra
20 Years Later: Level3 Certified CrossFit Trainer
After 21 years of CrossFitting and 19 years since my Level 1 Certification, I finally secured my Level 3 Certification. The Level 3 is a 3-4 hour comprehensive, written examination (ANSI certified) with a high failure rate. Coaches must have 375 hours of recent CrossFit group class & private coaching experience in order to qualify. The study material was impressive, extensive and time consuming. CrossFit is a knowledge-based, evidence-backed methodology with a tremendous amount of supporting exercise science research content dating back 20+ years.
Here’s my take-aways from my test preparation experience:
CrossFit Has Been Right All Along: as I poured over myriad articles related to CrossFit’s fitness & nutrition methodologies – many of which were published 10-15 years ago – I was reminded that CrossFit has been right all along. Many of the most followed “science-backed” fitness influencers (Attia, Huberman, Rhonda Patrick, Galpin, etc) now promote much of the same information that CrossFit published years ago:
- Nutrition is the foundation for health & fitness
- Strength training significantly contributes to longevity and is beneficial for ALL ages
- Intensity in exercise yields the best results for overall fitness, including V02 max
- Variance in exercise modality produces more diverse overall fitness results
- Eating whole foods and avoiding sugar are best for chronic disease prevention
Check out the full essentials media library if you want to dig in.
ChatGPT Helped Me Study! Reading through large volumes of detailed exercise and nutrition science articles was a daunting task for me. My eyes aren’t what they used to be and most of the content is computer-based which gets annoying after more than an hour. So, I decided to use AI to help me out. Here’s how:
- I uploaded multiple pdf files into Chat GPT and used the conversation mode to ask questions about the content – the discussions were really cool.
- ChatGPT created quiz questions for me from the content I uploaded and gave me multiple choice answers to choose from. I had fun with these.
- I downloaded the “Speechify” app on my phone which converts pdfs to audio-book format so I could listen to the articles on my drives.
At the end of the day, it was a huge relief to pass this test. At 62yo, I’m stoked that I’m still learning and progressing – mentally and physically – because of CrossFit. And, by the way, if your CrossFit Coach has an L3 (or L4!), I can tell you with supreme confidence that he/she knows wtf they’re talking about when it comes to fitness and nutrition.
#itsup2us
INTERMITTENT FASTING CHALLENGE: WEEK 5
> 5 DAYS OF 14/10: Complete 5 consecutive days of a 14hour fast with a 10 hour eating window.
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- IF CHALLENGE WEEK 1 (Oct 12-19): Complete 2 days of “16/8” – 16 hours of 0 calories, and 8 hours for eating.
- IF CHALLENGE WEEK 2 (Oct 20-27): Complete 3 consecutive days of “14/10”
- IF CHALLENGE WEEK 3 (Oct 27 – Nov 2): Complete 3 CONSECUTIVE Days of “16/8” – 14 hours of fasting and 10 hour eating window.
- IF CHALLENGE WEEK 4 (Nov 3 – Nov 9): Complete a 24Hour Fast.
Important, during your hours of eating, prioritize protein and healthy foods. Black coffee, water and non-sweetened electrolytes are ok during fasting hours.
CROSSFIT OPEN THROWBACK: The Buttery Bros at Diablo for Open Announcement 19.3
Every week until the Open, I’ll be sharing some awesome memories from our long history of Open & Games participation.
This was another epic moment at Diablo: we were picked to officially announce a CrossFit Games Open workout! And.. the Buttery Bros – with the largest CrossFit YouTube audience came by and produced an awesome behind-the-scenes experience video highlighting the gym and the event.
PROGRAMMING ** THIS WEEK **
VETERANS DAY WORKOUT: LUMBERJACK 20 – this year we’re honoring our veterans with the CrossFit Hero Workout “Lumberjack 20“, created in memory of the 12 soldiers and 1 civilian who were killed by a terrorist attack at Fort Hood, Texas. 11 of the soldiers were active CrossFitters in the 20th Engineer Battalion, home to Lumberjack CrossFit.
- Mon: Amrap 16m – 10/15c Bike, 200m SB Carry, 15/20c Bike, 2 Rope Climbs
- Tue: Lumberjack 20 – 20DL, 400m Run, 20KB, 400m Run, 20 OHS, 400m Run, 20 Burpees, 400m Run, 20 C2B, 400m Run, 20 BJ, 400m Run, 20 DB SqCleans, 400m Run.
- Wed: Primary Strength – Snatch & Sn Accessory
- Thu: Secondary Strength – Back Squat
- Fri: C&J – build to 1rm. Metcon: Amrap 7m – 4 Burpee over Bar, 8 Strict Press, 12 DL
- Sat: T2B Skills. Amrap 10m: 12/15c Airbike, 9 T2B, 6 Burpee Pull Ups
- Sun: Run & TGUs – 20m Clock: 7 Rnds for time – 200m Run, 1m rest, then 1 RM TGU.
OUR PODCAST IS BACK! – Tuesdays at 12P PT
- Nov 4: Diablo Member and Master Brewer, Chris Graham shares his physical transformation story and biohacking secrets!
- Oct 28: Zia Rohrbaugh Is Betting on CrossFit – Despite experiencing a 100% rent rate increase in her Encinitas location, 15+yr owner Zia is opening a 2nd location in Oceanside in Jan 2026.Also available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.
CRAIG’S LIST: Great Life Advice from the Gram and Kirkland Kicks
- IG – Easy Ways To Use AI!! Mel Robbins’ Podcast Guest Allie Miller gives a couple of really cool tips for the best ways to use AI (ChatGpt or Grok) for day-to-day life tasks. I did some similar things to help me prepare for my L3 test. Watch the WHOLE Podcast with Allie K. Miller with Mel Robbins (my new fav podcaster).
- IG- Three Things To Come To Terms with in Life – Mel Robbins. FACTS!
- IG – Two Types of People In Life – Codie Sanchez gives an awesome breakdown of the two types of people in life and how she looks at problems in her life.
- IG – New Kirkland Nikes – These will sell out immediately.
Make it an awesome week!
Craig
