“Don’t bother to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself.” William Faulkner
COMPETITION & CROSSFIT Diablo athletes were busy this weekend! Masters Athlete Gwen Holtan flew to San Diego to participate in the CrossFit Legends competition after qualifying in an online competition. After 4 days of workouts, she finished in 12th out of 25 competing women. 11 other Diablo members participated in the San Francisco Throwdown event on Saturday, which had 3 categories of athletes, beginners to advanced. Diablo’s Kendra Watters and Teresa Brann finished in 2nd & 3rd in the advanced category and Jackson Miller finished atop the podium for the advanced men. New to CrossFit, Diablo’s Sean Reifel also finished in first place in the Level 2 division!
The best part of competing at CrossFit is the camaraderie and community. Organized competitions are more like fun festivals rather than competition events. And, they’re a great way to demonstrate your work capacity earned in the many hours in the gym. Unfortunately, local competitions literally disappeared during the pandemic but they were already dying off prior. They’re a lot of work to organize and run, they require a lot of volunteers, and they’re typically not profitable. Of course, the CrossFit Games Open offers our members a great opportunity to get a feel for competing (be sure to register!) And, in 2022 we’re going to go one step further – Diablo is committed to putting together an in-house competition, after the Open.
Additionally, Jamie Lee and Progressive Programming have committed to producing a full-blown, off-site competition for the local CrossFit community in 2022. More news on this soon!
DIABLO HOLIDAY PARTY – DEC 18 – WE NEED A HEADCOUNT!: Please reserve your spot on the Diablo App or email us at info@diablocrossfit.com. This year we’re at Diablo with a “Holiday Pajamas” theme. We’ll have BBQ & drinks, games, music and fun. And, we’ll be announcing our 2021 Tom Jones Award winner.
WOMEN’S ADVENTURE RETREATS. Jen Ismar is back….as a member at Diablo! Jen was the Head Coach & Manager at CrossFit Moxie in San Jose several years ago. When Diablo acquired the affiliate, she moved to Pleasant Hill to manage our PHill location and San Jose. She left Diablo a few years ago to launch her own business: life & mindset coaching and adventure camps and now, with her businesses thriving, she’s returned to CrossFit for her personal fitness. One of her big dreams in life was to run adventure retreats for women and that dream became a reality last year. Check out her website.. and, if you’re interested, sign up on her site, or hit her up after class!
Diablo’s 100KMC TWO WEEKS Remain.. and Diablo is in 2nd place. We’re 1.2m meters behind the #metereaters who seemed determined to return to the top of the podium after being de-throned last year by Diablo.
- Friday Night at the Movies – 7:30PM Main Gym – 12/17
- Sunday Rise & Shine – 6:30AM Main Gym – 12/19
- Aerobic Capacity – Holiday Class: Tuesdays 8am-9am and 7pm-8pm
Tweet of the Week: “Supply Chain Issues” is the new excuse du jour. (Sorry, this email is late, supply chain issues.)
WORKOUTS
The week ahead:
- Mon: Deadlift. Metcon: 3x2min – 12 Alt DB Devil Press #35/50, max reps Single Arm Press.
- Tue: Rope Climbs. Metcon: Amrap 8m – 35 DUs, 7K2E, 5 Strict Chin Ups
- Wed: 10RFT – 8 Alt Pistols, 4 Burpee over box, 2 PSnatch #95/135
- Thu: 3RFT – 30/40c Bike. 200m Sandbag Carry. 10BMU
- Fri: Press + Push Press. Metcon: 9 Press #75/115, 600m Run, 15 PP, 400m Run, 21 S2OH, 200m Run.
- Sat: Amrap 15m – 500/600m Row, 45 DUs, 7 DB HSC #35/50, 14 FC Lunge
- Sun: 5RFT – 6 Ring Dips, 12 SDLHP #65/95, 800/1000m C2 Bike
CRAIG’S LIST (Stuff I’m Reading, Hearing, Watching, Using or Buying)
Humanoid Robots: Ameca Robot’s facial “awakening” stunned the internet last week. I was blown away, but not surprised given what I saw 50 years ago as a child at Disneyland. As it turns out, Disney remains one of the industry leaders in innovative robotics. Check out this cool video that tells the story of current robotics.
FABKIN – (Cool research reported by former Diablo member Tom McCoy, MD!) Newly discovered hormone complex that appears to sign the energy status of cells and regulate metabolism! If you listened to the Peter Attia Podcast from two weeks ago, you learned about the impact of fructose on the human body, which triggers a fat-storage process. Now, Harvard researchers have discovered a NEW hormone complex (Fabkin) that actually regulates the metabolic process in cells. The authors showed that the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas are a target of fabkin and that the hormone is a driving force behind the development of diabetes. When the researchers used an antibody to neutralize fabkin in mice, the animals did not develop diabetes. When the antibody was given to obese, diabetic mice, they reverted to a healthy state. See the research report here.
The Corona Virus Attacks Fat Tissue (NY Times Article) – We all know that obesity complicates CV19. However, recent research has discovered that coronavirus appears to evade the body’s immune defenses and “hang out” in fat tissue, which allows it to replicate and trigger a severe immune response.
Make it an awesome week!
Craig
