The Grain Manifesto

http://whole9life.com/2013/02/grain-manifesto/

I know, I know!  Everyone loves bread, pasta, corn, and rice.  I really, REALLY miss bread!  But, you have to weigh the "nutritional value" of grains against the health problems associated with consuming something your body is not capable of properly digesting.  Please follow the link above; do some reading; and let us know what you think.

WOD 27 Feb, 2013

AMRAP 20 Minutes

10 Overhead Squats (95#/75#)

20 meter Walking Lunges

Post number of completed rounds and partial rounds to comments.

WOD 25 Feb, 2013

“Tabata Something Else”

Pull Ups (Scale=Jumping Pull Ups)

Push Ups (Scale=Knee Push Ups)

Sit Ups

Squats

Complete 8 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest for each of the above exercises; e.g. 8 intervals of Pull Ups, 8 intervals of Push Ups, etc. There is no rest between exercises.

Score is the total of the lowest number of reps completed in 20 seconds for each exercise.

Who has time for that?!

As you've experienced, Crossfit is a lot more about lifting things up and putting them down. There's a lot of technical skill, mental fortitude, and down-right primal instincts involved during a grueling WOD.

The bad news is, unlike yoga or pilates, it doesn't get any easier with time. Diane and Fran will always kick your butt,  thrusters and burpees will always suck, and AMRAPS will always leave you gasping for air. But you will get stronger! And you'll crave the suck. As long as you practice...

But how do you practice such a broad, general, all-inclusive form of fitness?

By Crossfitting; that means practicing your skills throughout all modalities (the major ones being gymnastics, weightlifting, and mono-structural ones, like rowing and running), working on your weaknesses to become stronger, and keeping with it.  

This week, the clean and the jerk were introduced. These moves are "Olympic lifts," which means they are extremely technical and require a lot of skill to execute properly. So why are we introducing these lifts? Beyond the physical-benefits, introducing them early means we can start practicing them more often. Does this mean we will become experts and qualify for the Olympics by 2016? Not likely; but we can get proficient at these by building technique and training our nervous system. Working on our technique and building our weaknesses will not only get us fitter, it will prevent injury. 

We talked about the 10,000 Hour Rule; considering we only have an hour to get through a warm-up, learn a technical skill, and complete a WOD, according to this, we would be able to collect retirement here before we become "experts" at anything. But we can get better in significantly less time by deliberately taking some effort to understand these skills that are being taught. 

One way to supplement the classes is by checking this blog, because you will happen upon resources like this series of great YouTube videos about the clean-and-jerk:

But beyond this, I encourage you to learn more. Be present in class, break down the skills, fully understand the ins-and-outs, and approach each workout with deliberate effort. Crossfit is not the end-all, be-all, but try to make it more than just your one-hour lunch-break workout. 

I also encourage to spread the word so people can fully take advantage of the opportunity we have here. Consider this: a typical Crossfit box gives a free intro class, usually makes you take an "on-ramp" fundamentals course that might be anywhere from $100-150, and charges a monthly fee of $100 or more for a membership or at least $15-20 a drop-in class. You're getting all that for free. Even if you leave next month, you will at least build proficiency in the fundamental movements enough to not have to take any on-ramp or basic-skills requirements boxes have. 

Though we might not spend 10,000 hours together, every little bit counts as long as you approach each workout whole-heartedly and deliberately! Have fun, learn and be fit! 

Can't wait to start up another week full of WODs!

WOD 22 Feb, 2013

WOD: For time,
           6 rounds
           5 Push Jerks (135#/95#)
           10 Box Jumps (30"/24")
           15 Front Squats (135#/95#)

Post time and weight used to comments.

Nutrition for the CrossFit Athlete

I wanted to pass some information about nutrition.  When it comes down to your performance in the gym, and your overall health, what you eat is more important than what you lift.  The article below lists some of the most damaging myths we hear in our day to day lives. 

The fundamental problem with most of these myths is they are perpetuated by the USDA, which has bases their recommendations on 50 year old studies that have been repeatedly debunked by modern research. 

The article has links to the research it sites, so can get the information from the source.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

11 Biggest Lies of Mainstream Nutrition

Mobilize for Improvement

It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve started Crossfit, and as we get into more technical skills, like the kipping pull-up, snatches, overhead squats, etc., you’re going to start feeling like your body just doesn’t move that way.

One reason might be the profound learning curb that is "Crossfit," which gives it its appeal for constant improvement, progression and knowledge. But a simpler reason might be due to mobility issues from bodies that are not used to moving in the ways these skills make us move.

Oftentimes, it is thought that mobility work involves simply just stretching before an exercise. People don’t consider it an important part of fitness and want to get to the “real workout” so eagerly they often will rush or even skip mobility work.  

But there’s a difference between stretching and mobilization. What is it?
To explain this, I’ll use an excerpt from mobilitywod.com:

“Stretching only focuses on lengthening short and tight muscles. Mobilization, on the other hand, is a movement-based integrated full-body approach that addresses all the elements that limit movement and performance including short and tight muscles, soft tissue restriction, joint capsule restriction, motor control problems, joint range of motion dysfunction, and neural dynamic issues. In short, mobilization is a tool to globally address movement and performance problems.”

What this means to you is that, much like you can build your absolute strength by lifting weights, you can build your mobility.

The most important thing is, like any other skill, you work on it. Don’t think it’s something you can skip and get away with; you’ll only be penalized with soreness, instability and even injury. Your muscles recover relatively quickly; it’s the joints, tendons and nerves in the system that need the most work, recovery and rehab. Improving your mobility, bit-by-bit, will help you improve recovery and protect you from injury.

How should you get started? There are tons of resources online, but we’ve covered a bunch in classes already. Most of the stretches with the PVC-pipe works wonders, but if you’re still wondering, I’ve listed some tools and online videos that might get you started.

Some things I’ve invested in are a couple of lacrosse balls, a sock, and a broom stick. If you have the resources, you can add a foam roller and some band as other tools to work on your mobility. Shoot for 10 to 20-minute sessions of mobility work many days a week.

Tips for lacrosse balls:

Shoulder mobility:

Some drills for the shoulders:

Scapular mobility:

Some ways you can use a foam roller:

There is a plethora of resources on Youtube and the web to help you improve. Make sure you check out some of the videos I’ve posted and take a few minutes to read http://www.mobilitywod.com/ to learn more than you ever wanted to know about human mechanics! (You'll be on your way to becoming a "supple leopard")

Once your mobility improves you and feel your body moving harmoniously through a WOD, you won't think of it as "just stretching" ever again!

Stuff Crossfitters Say

Don't be too surprised if you start saying or thinking these things :P

I know I've been taking a few "bonus" cheat days myself...

Let's not lie; Camille is dreamy. 

And of course, we can't forget the original:

Is the WOD up?!

Hope everyone had fun at the workout today! We'll see you next week. Have a great President's Day Weekend!

Record Records

A quick reminder that Monday’s WOD will be cancelled due to the holiday! But we still hope you will join us for Friday’s WOD! Should be a good time. 

We talk a lot about keeping a log of your WODs so that you can go back to see how you’ve progressed. As we start doing more technical lifts, benchmark girl WODs, Hero WODs, we’re going to want to be able to chart measurable results in our training. Not only is it good for progression, it gives motivation for you as an athlete when you hit PR’s (personal records or personal bests), helps you establish goals and tailor your programming to your needs, and, when you become a fire-breathing Crossfitter who beast-modals all your RX+ WODs, is great to show-off to your non-Crossfitting Facebook friends. (Sike, don’t do that; that’s annoying.)

I wanted to share some tips with keeping training logs. Keep in mind that everyone has their own style, and there’s no wrong way to record a workout, but a few things might point you in the right direction to starting your own WOD Log. 

A few things you should always include are the date, the WOD you did, and how you scaled it. Some things that might be useful to write down, for future reference: write how you felt, what was harder than expected, what you did pre (buy-in) and post (cash-out) workout. 

As an example, let’s take a look at Diane, as if we scaled it, and one way to record it in our log book:

01 JAN

Diane

Rounds of 21-15-9 for time:

Deadlifts, 225#

Hand-stand push-ups

Scaled: DL (135#), box push up (30” box)

Time: 2.45 min, Not RX

Notes:

Buy-in: 100 double-unders, 50 PVC-Overhead Squats (OHS), 25 med-ball slams

WOD: Deadlifts too light but need work on technique. Box push-ups were easy, try RX next time. Last set easy, middle set took longest.

Cash-out: 100 sit-ups, 50 push-ups, 25 burpees

Let’s do one for strength WOD

03 JAN

Squat Snatch: 3-3-3-3-3-3-3

155-185-210-225-265F-245

Notes:

Buy-in: 100 air squats, 2K row

WOD: Started too light. Broken technique made me fail at 265. Practiced four pulls at 135# before WOD. 245# not heavy.

Cash-out: 50 double-unders, 40 hollow rocks, 30 double-unders, 20 hollow rocks

Whatever way you figure is best for your training is ultimately up to you. The purpose isn’t to have something pretty or boastful; the purpose is to give you the analytics that will help you set goals, fine-tune your GPP, and get fit while celebrating milestones along the way.

Some tools that might help you:

Beyond the Whiteboard: My personal favorite. Let’s you create your own programming pretty easily. My favorite feature is the modality breakdown. The biggest downside: it’s subscription base, unless you belong to an affiliate.

WODHub: More for use as an affiliate tool, but they have individual WOD Logging as well.

LogsItAll: Haven’t used this one, but recommended to me by a friend. Let us know if you decide to try it out!

Workout Hero: I don’t use this app to log, but I do like the workouts they have in there. Quick links to PDFs, CFJ, etc. as well. I think it costs $0.99 though, and I only know of one for the iPhone.

myWOD: Not as powerful as I would like, but definitely nice to have around for the interval timers, the news feed and workouts on-the-go! Again, I only know of the app for iPhone.

Life Lift!

Great time in class today! It’s great to see the amount of motivation, proficiency and technique you athletes are bringing to the table. 

Today’s WOD was:

5-5-5-5-5 for max deadlift.

The deadlift is a good first strength WOD because I feel that it is definitely something that is lacking in most fitness and exercise routines. People either skip it, don’t do it properly, or are simply scared away by the name. Perhaps calling it the “life-lift” might persuade more people into trying this highly-functional workout!

People unassociated with Crossfit might think this is not a “typical Crossfit WOD” (which doesn’t exist, by the way) since it’s not a MetCon. But don’t forget; Crossfit specializes in not specializing. These workouts are very important to the programming because this is how Crossfitters get stronger! 

Measurable results are definitely an important part of why we’ve seen Crossfit grow. We have benchmark WODs and tests that help us find these measurable results so you have evidence that, as you Crossfit, you get fitter. 

So, who’s fitter? Athlete 1, who can do 100 muscle-ups in a row, or Athlete 2, who can squat, bench and deadlift over 2,000 pounds? 

The answer is that both of them are strong; but they are in different ways:

Today we introduced the concept of “absolute strength,” which is basically asking ourselves “how much can you lift?” Period. This is important when you start to try to find your Crossfit Total (the sum total of your squat, deadlift, and shoulder press) but also important in general physical preparedness, which is the goal of the programming.  If we know how much our body can move, we can improve our proficiency in tackling a multitude of simpler, body-weight tasks; strengthen more complex movements, like snatches or clean-and-jerks; and even be prepared for the unforeseen or unknowable. (You might be able to see why that is important in our line of work.)

But remember; it's form over everything. Work on good mechanics, and then build that good technique into good habits. Once that happens, you add the intensity and weight. Don’t get too caught up in how much weight you’re moving or how fast you’re going. If you dial in your technique, the weight and the times will come!

Hopefully everyone is learning, getting fit and having a lot of fun. We look forward to seeing you on Friday; we have a lot of room in our 1200 classes still, so don’t forget to tell a partner to come out!

Debut WOD

MarForCrossfit kicked off with its debut WOD yesterday! We had a few adjustments to make, but everyone came enthusiastic, full of heart and ready to rumble!

The athletes were introduced to the definition of Crossfit: Constantly-varied, functional movement at high intensity to increase work capacity and athletic efficacy across broad time and modal domains.

This week and next week we will focus more in-depth on the basic fundamental movements of Crossfit, so we can all get better. So if you're new or need to brush up, make sure you pop in this first month so the coach can help you dial in that technique! 

The WOD was:

AMRAP 20 (As Many Rounds/Reps As Possible in 20 minutes) 
5 burpees
10 push-ups
15 air squats

At first glance, the workout seems like a breeze; basic movements, short rep-scheme, reasonable time-cap. But, as the athletes found out, when you're pushing yourself to the limit for 20 minutes, it's a battle that takes all your strength. But every athlete realized that it was them against themselves and pushed all the way through for some impressive rounds!

A few of the basic movements were demonstrated before; the squat, the push-up and the burpee. 

One major thing taught; in Crossfit, there's a difference between efficient movement and the traditional movement you might have learned in high school. The burpee is a perfect example; for efficiency, we want to get our chest to the deck as fast and direct as possible. Though, slamming to the ground, so that the only thing keeping your teeth from being knocked out is your chest, might not be the best idea, getting yourself down without the push-up will help, especially in today's case where you have push-ups right after. That means if you did ten rounds in today's WOD, you did 50 less pushups by making your burpees more efficient! 

There's no hiding from the whiteboard!

The classes were a blast, and hopefully the beginnings of another Crossfit community where athletes can come share knowledge, train and inspire! Can't wait until Wednesday! We have plenty of room for hour 1200 class, so tell your friends!