Columbus Day Hours On Columbus Day, October 11th a number of gyms will have different operating hours and class schedules. See the below listing for updated hours and class changes:



Mission Cliffs will have no classes and hours will be 9am to 7pm

Great Western Power Company will have Crossfit at 5 and hours will be 10 am to 6pm

Berkeley Ironworks will have Cardio Kickboxing at 1pm and Cardio Boxing at 6:30 and hours will be 9 am to 8pm

Diablo Rock Gym will have no classes and hours 9 am to 6 pm

Sacramento Pipeworks will have Yoga at 12, Indoor Cycling at 5:30pm, Yoga at 6:30pm, Yoga at 7:45pm and hours will be to 10 pm

For More Information check the Calendars Page

Labels: Cardio Kickbxing, CrossFit

  ¶ Monday, October 11, 2010 0 Comments

  Crossfit's Weekend Warrior Series At GWPC This Saturday, October 2nd, Great Western Power Company will hold Crossfit Unlimited and a great competition.

The Weekend Warrior Series features head to head competition in the WOD (work-out of the day) and will involve a max pull-up, a one mile run, and another activity. It may be done individually or as a team of four. The WWS is designed to allow Crossfitters to meet, compete, and hang out with other Crossfitters.



The regular Crossfit East Bay Saturday class will take place at 12:30 pm at GWPC, immediately following the event.

Labels: CrossFit, Crossfit Unlimited, Weekend Warrior Series

  ¶ Wednesday, September 29, 2010 0 Comments

  Crossfit Throwdown at GWPC Beyond climbing, the Touchstone gyms also host a number of different activites. One notable group that uses the facilities are the Crossfitters. Combining Olympic lifting, gymnastics, and intense excercise, Crossfit has amassed a solid following in the Bay area. The different Crossfit groups all join together for an Olympic style competition.

The CrossFit Throwdown on March 6 at GWPC was a rousing success. 44 competitors from all around the Bay Area came to compete with many more spectators attending to cheer on their favorite athletes. The competition involved athletes completing an hour+ of more intense activity than most of us are accustomed to doing in a month.



The CrossFit East Bay site has great pictures of the workout of the day.

Reports of the event were made by a few different parties involved. Crossfit Silicon Valley, Crossfit Oakland, and Diablo Crossfit all posted reports on their websites.



For the event, competitors had to do the following:
Event One:

30 Burpees
30 C2B Pull-Ups
30 Deadlift 275/185
Run 6.2KM
Max Rep Burpees
40 Minute limit

Final Event:
Top 5 Male/Female competitors:

AMRAP in 10 minutes of the complex:

5 Deadlift 135/95
4 Hang Clean 135/95
3 Thruster 135/95
2 Front Squat 135/95
1 Shoulder to Overhead 135/95

Come join the Crossfit crew at your local Touchstone gym and get strong!

Labels: CrossFit, CrossFit Throwdown, GWPC

  ¶ Wednesday, March 10, 2010 0 Comments

  Crossfit Games at GWPC The CrossFit Games are the ultimate test of fitness. It's a grueling two-day competition in which the world's fittest athletes compete in a variety of workouts. What are the workouts? Each year they change, and the details of them are not announced until a couple days before the event. This means that all year long, the athletes are training for a competition whose format is almost completely a mystery.

Sat March 6th at 11AM, CrossFit East Bay presents the second throwdown of the season right here at GWPC!

Since their inception in 2007, the games have grown from, basically, a barbeque where a workout broke out to an international competition attracting tens of thousands of competitors all vying for 100 slots (50 women, 50 men) in the games. This year there are sectionals, regionals and, finally, the games. Here in the bay area, the competition season kicked off February 20 with the first "Throwdown" of the year: CrossFit Oakland's crushing time limited run/thruster/burpee combo. The throwdowns are an opportunity for anyone who desires to get a taste of CF competition, and to help prepare the serious athletes for competition.



The first event, at 11 AM sharp, will be a 6.2K run, from the back gate, around Lake Merritt and back to GWPC, immediately followed by as many rounds as possible of of 4 burpees, 3 chest-to-bar kipping pull-ups and 2 275 pound deadlifts (185 pounds for women). There will be a 40 minute time limit (anyone running any slower than a 10 minute pace will DNF), and faster run times will be rewarded with more time to do rounds. A six-minute pace will give the athlete about 15 minutes to do rounds, a seven-minute pace about 11 minutes, etc. Of course faster athletes may have trouble with the heavy deadlifts, but such is CrossFit.

The second event, at 12:40 sharp, will be a contest between the top five male and female finishers for top honors. It will be as many rounds of possible of the complex: carry a loaded barbell (135 pounds for men, 95 pounds for women) 150 feet, and, without putting it down, perform one deadlift, one hang clean, one thruster, one back squat and one shoulder to overhead press, anyway, anyhow. That is one rep, and more than a momentary pause on the ground for the deadlift constitutes a miss. There will be a 15 minute time limit.



Spectators welcome. Scaling will be available for those who wish to try it (you must be able to do at least 3 pull-ups and 2 185 pound deadlifts, or 135 pounds for women).

Labels: CrossFit, GWPC, Olympic lifting

  ¶ Wednesday, March 03, 2010 0 Comments

  2009 Crossfit Games
On Friday, July 10 through Sunday, July 12 2009 some of the fittest athletes in the Bay Area will be competing in the 2009 Crossfit Games in Aromas, California. There will be three different competitions happening that weekend: Individual Men, Individual Women, and the team Affiliate Cup. The format is undisclosed at this time and will remain so until the events starts. The Crossfit coordinators want to keep competitors on their toes and ready to for anything.

In addition to the games, two of professional armwrestling's biggest stars Travis Bagent and John Brzenk will be at the Games. The men will armwrestle any and all who wish to challenge them. It'll be straight out of Sylvester Stallone Over the Top!

For More Information and the latest updates on the games check out:

The Crossfit Games Web Page

Labels: CrossFit, Games Travis Bagent

  ¶ Thursday, July 09, 2009 0 Comments

  Apollonia Helm To 2009 CrossFit Games! Looks like one of our very own members, Apollonia Helm, who in addition to being a Touchstone member, is an absolutely amazing athlete, performed extremely well at the 2009 NorCal Qualifier for the 2009 CrossFit Games and as such, will be advancing!

The 2009 CrossFit Games will take place July 10th through 12th. We were lucky enough to get some inside information on what all went down. Check it out:

The official results are in and Apollonia Helm will be representing CrossFit East Bay at the 2009 CrossFit Games on July 10th to 12th (She came in fifth). Local athlete Candace Hamilton of CrossFit Oakland will be representing CFO (she came in second).

Coming in to day two, Polly was in a three-way tie for third place. 16 women RXd the day one WODs (out of a possible 20 slots) and were able to advance to day two.

The day two WOD was the following:

22 deadlifts @ 315#/185#
Farmers walk with 45#/25# dumbbells to top of inner loop (hill)
22 thrusters with 45#/25# dumbbells
Farmers walk with 45#/25# dumbbells to bottom of inner loop (hill)
Run to pull-up bar and do 22 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Run to top of outer loop (hill)
22 overhead squats @ 95#/65#
Run to bottom of inner loop (hill)

The hill in question was extremely steep to say the least. Not one competitor managed to run the whole thing*.

Polly finished in a solid 17:42 for fifth place and a spot in the 2009 CrossFit Games. Only 150 athletes worldwide were able to qualify out of a field of thousands. To put in perspective, there were 200 competitors at the NorCal Qualifier and only 10 slots for the games available.

Polly's superb skills as a generalist and the specific training she did coming up to the qualifier served her well here and she finished strong. Her main complaint about the WODs, in fact, was that she did not go hard enough and was still able to stand up at the end. We will have to work on that going forward. Thanks again to Gita who designed the ramp-up training for Polly with a bit of input here and there.

GO POLLY!

* Gita tried out the WOD post-qualifier for fun and was one of only two people to run the entire steep section bottom to top with no breaks. The other was Aaron MacIntire of CrossFit Oakland.

Congratulations and best of luck in July!

Labels: CrossFit, CrossFit Championships, Featured Members, Touchstone Members

  ¶ Friday, May 08, 2009 1 Comments

  CrossFit Competition Season in Full Swing

Here's a bit more about all this:

"CrossFit East Bay will be fielding a team for the "Affiliate Cup" comp at the Games in July.

CrossFit East Bay will be having tryouts and/or competitions within our affiliate to determine the make-up of our team.

Training for the Affiliate Cup Tryouts will begin on Sunday May 9th. There will be a MANDATORY meeting on that day, 1PM, for those interested in tryouts: if for some reason, you truly cannot make it, schedule a separate meeting with me please.

While Gita and I are working out the details, it is likely that we will mirror the affiliate cup format by having two WODs per day, one at 1PM and one at 6PM (programming by Gita), with at least some of these held at off-site locations. There will be 14 WODs followed by a qualifier one week before the games (July 5th, date subject to change). You must attend 10 of 14 WODs to participate in the qualifier."

If you're into it, and feeling fit enough, check it out and look into getting involved. You will be pushed to your limits!

Labels: Berkeley Ironworks, CrossFit, CrossFit Championships

  ¶ Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1 Comments