Now that I’ve recapped what all the professional athletes were doing during the Reebok CrossFit Games (check out that recap if you missed it: Reebok CrossFit Games 2013), I wanted to share the workout adventures that we were lucky enough to enjoy while out in California!
On Saturday morning before heading to the Games, Reebok treated all of their media attendees to a WOD courtesy of Yumi Lee (in the middle below in purple), a celebrity trainer and co-owner of Reebok CrossFit LAB in Los Angeles.
Sharing some love for the CrossFit Nano 3.0s courtesy of Reebok:
Yumi has trained Brad Pitt, Jessica Alba, Pink, Hugh Jackman, and more, and believes that there is no greater investment than the investment in one’s self – mind, body and soul. I would agree! 🙂 Here I am with Yumi & Tina:
Tina & I are wearing the Gradient Tank & Performance Capri courtesy of Reebok – loved them!
The workout was awesome and took place in the beautiful courtyard at the hotel where Reebok put us up for the weekend: The Belamar in Manhattan Beach. It was a great morning to be outside working out – I love southern California weather!
We started with a warm up of some stretches followed by step ups, squats, and pushups.
And then moved on to our main workout, which was a Tabata-style workout with 3 stations: abs, kettle bell swings, and thrusters!
For each station, we did 8 rounds of 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest. That 10 seconds went by FAST, let me tell you! I started with abs, which was hard but nothing compared to the other two stations. 🙂
Next up was kettle bell swings! I was challenged to use a heavier kettle bell than I normally would because that was all they had on hand, and it was obviously really hard but I surprised myself by being able to do it! It’s so easy to get stuck in your routine at the gym and not try for anything harder – guess it’s time to challenge myself more!
Last on my circuit was thrusters! Man these were rough. Again, I challenged myself – I had a 15 lb. weight in each hand, when I normally would have chosen 10 lb. weights. I was proud of myself for pushing through! If you’re not sure what a thruster is, it’s a deep squat with weights in your hands, and then when you stand back up you push the weights overhead. It’s an amazing total body workout move – try it!
After our workout, I asked Yumi if she would share a quick workout video for you guys – something that could be done in just 5 or 10 minutes but would still get your heart racing and body working. I love what she came up with – this would be so perfect for days when you really think you don’t have time to fit in a workout. You do – 5 or 10 minutes is way better than nothing, right? 🙂 Check it out!
I took the video on my phone and realized next time that I should have taken it horizontally instead of vertically. Oh, well. You can still see her just fine. 🙂
The other cool opportunity for Reebok’s media guests was a workout experience on Sunday morning with Christmas Abbott, an avid CrossFitter and, most recently, a NASCAR pit crew member who changes tires during NASCAR races! How hardcore is that for a girl?!
Christmas taught us all how to change a tire ourselves. I can’t imagine how hard this would be to do with the pressure of a competition – Christmas says she can change two tires in 14 seconds! Wow.
Once we had practiced the tire change, we got suited up and ready for a fun competition. The challenge, for time: 10 burpees, 5 tire flips (and after each tire flip, we hopped back through the tire), and then removing a tire! I was pitted against my friend Gina – bring it on, girl!
Do as I say, not as I do – my back should be flatter in the photo below – bad form! 😉
Attempting to get the tire off!
And finally, success! Gina totally kicked my butt – she is a seriously fast burpee-er! But to be fair, I had an equipment malfunction when trying to get the tire off – the spring that takes the bolts off the tire totally flew out of my gun. Oops! Christmas said that happens sometimes during a race and you just have to act fast to fix it!
If you want to see the competition in action, check out my Instagram page – I uploaded a video of us doing the competition over there! Click here to see it. 🙂 You also get to hear just how loud the gun we used to remove the tires is – we all had earplugs in!
Here’s the whole gang with Christmas, post workout.
And with just the Reebok blogger ladies (I’m wearing the Reebok Strength is Beautiful Tank – love it and the message it sends!):
Christmas was SO sweet and all of us had the opportunity to interview her after the workout. I had read in her bio that she wasn’t always fit and healthy – apparently a couple years ago she made the decision to turn her life around. I asked her to talk more about her motivation for change – and what she would say to someone who thinks it’s too late. It’s a great interview – check it out for some inspiration!
For the final workout of the weekend, Gina, Ericka, and I finished out our time in California with a nice run by the beach on Monday morning before heading off to the airport.
I’d never been to the Manhattan/Hermosa Beach area before – it was beautiful! Really cute (and I’m sure insanely expensive) houses lined a nice paved pedestrian only walking/running trail right next to the beach.
We had fun checking out the scenery and chatting and the miles flew by. 5 miles – done and done! Great end to a great trip.
I want to say one more big thank you to Reebok for covering my CrossFit Games trip costs and outfitting me in their gear for the weekend. It was an honor to be out there representing them!
I’ll be back to normal posting tomorrow. Have a great day, everyone!
