Tues. Aug. 31

"Secret Agent MO"

Press
3-3-3

then

21-18-15-12-9-6 and 3 reps of:
Sumo Deadlift High-pull (75/55)
Push Jerk (75/55)

Mon. Aug. 30

Congrats to Justin Fox for becoming part of The Few, The Proud this weekend. We're proud of you Fox! Now come on in and pick up something heavy!

Back Squat
3-3-3-3-3

then

7 Min AMRAP:
20 Air Squats
20 ABMAT

Sat. Aug. 28

"The Chief"

3 Min AMRAP:
3 Power Cleans (135/95)
6 Push Ups (hand release)
9 Air Squats
rest 1 min
5 Cycles

Total Rounds for Score

Fri. Aug. 27

15 Min AMRAP:

5 Front Squats (95/65)
7 Dead Hang Pull Ups/7 Ring Pull Ups
9 Box Jumps
_________________________

We will be helping to sponsor the Best Buddies 5K at McKays Mill this Saturday. The race will begin at 7:30am. Come on out and help us to both spread the word about CrossFit and to support this terrific charity!

Thurs. Aug. 26

Deadlift
5-3-1

Then

"Diane"
21,15,9:

Deadlift (225/155)
Handstand Push Ups

Wed. Aug. 25

40 Push Press (95/65)
10 Pull Ups
40 SDHP (95/65)
10 Pull Ups
40 Double Unders (120 single unders)
10 Pull Ups
40 Power Cleans (95/65)
10 Pull Ups
_________________________
CrossFit 101 4 Week Boot Camp

We will begin a 4 week boot camp starting on Tuesday, September 7. This is a fundamentals based program that will take place 3 times per week. Times will be Mon-Thurs at 7am and 6pm, Fri at 7am.

The price will be $200 for the camp. For all existing members who would like to participate, please let us know. This is a really good opportunity for anyone who has never tried CrossFit to begin at the ground level. If any members have friends, family, etc. who would like to participate, have them contact us and reserve a spot.

Tues. Aug. 24

Warm Up:
Run 800m

3 RFT:

400m Run
30 KB Swings (53/35)
30 Air Squats

Mon. Aug. 23

New Warm Up (on the board, will take 5-10min)

"Fran"
21,15,9 of:
Thrusters (95/65)
Pull Ups

Sat. Aug. 21

Teams of 2:

Run 800m
Then Carry a barbell 800m (95/65), one person works at a time.
Every 200m perform 50 reps of:
Station 1: Deadlift
Station 2: Back Squat
Station 3: Thrusters
Station 4: SDHP
Then Run 800m

First team to finish together wins.

Fri. Aug. 20

20,15,10,5:

Push Press (95/65)
KB Swings (53/35)
________________________
From CrossFit Hollywood

We are Different

By Jonathan Heuer

We are a different breed. We get excited by things most people avoid. The idea of being laid out on our backs after a workout is appealing. We strive on performance, deal with the pain, and take pleasure in small victories. 5 more pounds, 2 seconds quicker, an inch higher: these are the milestones we live for. These are the reasons we come in day after day and do what we do. We love the suck.

We are also a little ridiculous. We try and explain to friends and family why our shins are always scraped open, why our hands are ripped, why we’re having trouble walking down stairs that day, and then immediately try to convince them why they should come and do it. We tend towards a cult-like mentality. (Get more than two of us together and try to have a conversation about something else. Won’t happen.) We get way more excited about food than is normal, and we take cheat meals very seriously. We wear ridiculous looking shoes, or sometimes no shoes at all. We cheer when someone gets their first hand-tear and then take a picture of it. We congratulate someone for puking during a workout, and none of this seems unusual to us.

Most of all we are a community. We suffer together and we succeed together. We cheer each other on. We help each other push past the pain and achieve things we never thought possible. Both inside and outside of the gym we are family. We come from all walks of life to find a common ground: Crossfit.

3…2…1… GO!

Thurs. Aug. 19

Deadlift
1-1-1-1-1-1-1

then

10 Min AMRAP:

20 Push Ups
20 Box Jumps

Wed. Aug. 18

Snatch Practice

then

“Jeremy”

21-15-9 of:

Overhead squats (Men 95 lbs, Women 65 lbs)

Burpees

Read This

Tues. Aug. 17

15 Min AMRAP:

One Kettlebell (35/26)

10 KB Swings
10 Windmills (each arm)
10 Goblet Squats
_________________________

OLIVE OIL!

Mon. Aug. 16

For time:

Run 800m
then
6 Rounds of:
10 Air Squats
10 Knees to Elbows
10 Toes to Bar

Sat. Aug. 14

"300"
25x Pull-up
50x Deadlift @ 135#
50x Push-up
50x Box Jump @ 24" box
50x Floor Wiper @ 135#
50x KB Clean and Press @ 35# (KB must touch floor between reps)
25x Pull-up

300 reps total

Fri. Aug. 13

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1: Pull Ups
20,18,16,14,12,10,8,6,4,2: Overhead Squats & ABMAT

- Do 10 Pull Ups, 20 OHS with PVC, 20 ABMAT
- Continue until you finish with 1,2,&2

Thurs. Aug. 12

Power Cleans
3-3-3-3-3

then

"Grace"
30 Clean & Jerks for time.

Watch!

Wed. Aug. 11

5 RFT:

5 Deadlift (275/195)
10 Burpees
_________________________

How To: Proper Push Ups Technique

Tues. Aug 10

7 RFT:

10 Air Squats
10 Front Squats (95/65)
10 Lunges (each Leg)
10 Box Jumps
________________________

Peppers Stuffed Primally and Italianly

Mon. Aug. 9

"Nate"

20 Min AMRAP:

2 Muscle Ups (sub 3 pull ups and 3 ring dips for muscle ups, 6 each round)
4 Handstand Push Ups
8 KB Swings (70/53)


DEMO Here

Sat. Aug. 7

Teams of 2:

21 Air Squats
run 200m
18 KB Swings
run 200m
15 Burpees
run 200m
12 Push Ups
run 200m
9 DB Thrusters
run 200m

*complete as a team, must wait for both members to finish each run before you begin the next movement, only one set of db's and kb's per team.

Fri. Aug. 6

3 RFT:

30 KB Clean & Jerks (53/35)
30 KB Around the World (30 each direction)
30 KB SDHP
_________________________

It's All in the Approach

Thurs. Aug. 5

Press
3-3-3-3-3

then

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 of:

Push Press (95/65)
Ring Dips (scale with 2 for 1 jumping ring dips)
_________________________

8 Ways to Stay Motivated

Wed. Aug. 4

21,15,9 of:

KB Swings (53/35)
Knees To Elbows
Burpees
_________________________
Hangover Hacks You Can Hang Your Hat On

The hangover is an interesting beast. Like Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and any other huge, hirsute crypto-hominid, nearly every culture and every nation has an extensive literature (whether it’s entombed in writing or not) on the subject of hangovers. After all, alcohol is the universal intoxicant, and hangovers are the inevitable consequence of overindulgence.

Or are they?

Go Here!

Tues. Aug. 3

5 RFT:

20 Wall Ball (20/10)
20 Hand-release Push Ups
_________________________


Hooligan Horrorshow- Glen "The Angriest Motherf@$#%r Alive" MacCharles


Deep in the wilds of Canada there exists a man that's the most pure physical embodiment of hatred since Albert Johnson capped a bunch of mounties from his bunker in the frozen wastelands of the very same nation in which Glen MacCharles resides. Given that my training philosophy is open sourced, and I'm sure you people are all curious about what one another does or doesn't do in terms of training and diet, I thought I'd start posting some bios to facilitate mutual learning.


What have I learned from Glen? It is apparently possible to thrive on little more than hatred and milk. Additionally, this is the way to obtain the physique of a turn of the century strongman, which is essentially what Glen's rocking. Motherf@$&%r looks bizarrely like a modern day Edward Aston, if you mixed in a bit of the wacky redheaded guy from Braveheart and 13th Warrior for good measure.

This Guy Isn't Right... He Belongs With Us.

Mon. Aug. 2

15 Min AMRAP:

5 Pull Ups
10 One Arm Overhead DB Lunges (20/10)(Total)
15 ABMAT
20 Air Squats
_________________________
Primal Challenge:

Body Fat Testing begins tomorrow. Also, before and after pictures will be taken as well.

Sat. July 31

4 RFT:

Row 400m
20 One Arm DB Squat Snatch (30/15) (DB must touch the ground between each rep, 10 each arm)
20 Box Jumps
20 Pull Ups

Fri. July, 30

21,15,9 of:

KB Power Snatch RT arm (53/35)
KB Power Snatch LT arm
Toes to Bar
__________________________
Primal Challenge Begins August 1st. Weigh-In and Body Fat Next Week!

Thurs. July 29

Back Squat
5-5-5-5-5

or

Run 800m (one parking lot lap)
rest 3 min
Run 800m
*record time for each 800

____________________________
Primal Challenge

Starting on Aug 1, we will begin a primal (paleo) challenge. Have your body fat taken next week. Record all of your nutrition throughout the next 6 weeks. At the end of the challenge, have your body fat taken again.

The individual that loses the greatest percentage of their body fat wins the prize (one free month membership). We will provide you with some nutrition information, but you can seek out other resources if you want.

Sign up and get started.

Wed. July 28

For Time:

Row 500m
50 Box Jumps
50 ABMAT
50 Air Squats (no ball)
50 Push Press (65/45)
_________________________
Sleep, The Final Frontier

What do cancer, obesity, diabetes, depression, heart disease and high blood pressure have in common? Well, for starters, they can all kill you. There have been countless millions of dollars spent trying to find the causes and the cures for them. And the frequency with which people are being stricken with them has risen astronomically over the past century. There are lots of treatments for them, chemical, surgical, and psychological, and “everyone knows” that these diseases are most likely due to environmental or genetic causes which one day we will discover, right? Just like “everyone knows” that the USDA Food Pyramid is the healthiest way to eat, and that the 30 minutes of “moderately intense” activity (such as walking) three times a week recommended by the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine the way to maintain our health and reduce the risk for chronic disease, right?

Read The Rest Here....

Tues. July, 27

"I Keel You 'Till You Die From It"

3 RFT:

30 KB Swings (53/35)
30 Pull Ups
30 Deadlifts (135/95)

Mon. July 26

20 Min AMRAP:

10 Hand-release Push Ups
(hands must come off the ground at the bottom of each push up)
10 Burpee Broad Jumps
(you can go back and fourth instead of a straight line)
10 Wall Ball (20/10)
__________________________
The truth about alcohol, fat loss and muscle growth

I've been getting tons of questions relating to alcohol and fat loss lately. Happens every time summer rolls around. Outdoor parties, clubbing, vacations and the whole shebang. Alcohol is a key ingredient. What people want to know is basically how fattening alcohol is, how it affects protein synthesis, how to make it work with their diet, and what drinks to go for at the club.

Read the rest here:
http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle.html

Saturday July 24th, 2010

Crossfit Total

Squat X1
Press X 1
Deadlift X 1

Rules here.

Friday July 23, 2010

Front squat 3-3-3, sets across

Followed by:
Skill practice (pick something you suck at & practice it for 15-20 minutes; if you don't know what that is, I will help you figure it out).

-S.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Tennessee Pulling Machine-Bob Peoples
by Ron Fernando

"Perhaps the one man who deserves the title of the “Godfather “ of the Modern Deadlift was Tennessee farmer Bob Peoples. Peoples was a rawboned , lanky 175 lb specimen who started to lift weights at the tender age of 9, and taught himself not only the nuances of basic lifting but developed some unusual training systems along with some highly inventive but crude equipment, all of which was generations ahead of his time..."

Read the rest here.

Thursday July 22, 2010

FOR TIME:
Kettlebell power snatch 13/13 reps
Push-up 1 rep
Kettlebell power snatch 11/11 reps
Push-up 3 reps
Kettlebell power snatch 9/9 reps
Push-up 5 reps
Kettlebell power snatch 7/7 reps
Push-up 7 reps
Kettlebell power snatch 5/5 reps
Push-up 9 reps
Kettlebell power snatch 3/3 reps
Push-up 11 reps
Kettlebell power snatch 1/1 rep
Push-up 13 reps
*Men 44-pound kettlebell, or 45-pound dumbbell
**Women 18-pound kettlebell, or 20-pound dumbbell

-------------------------------------------------

How We Get Fat
by Lyle McDonald

"At a fundamental level, fat storage occurs when caloric intake exceeds caloric output, a topic I discussed in some detail in The Energy Balance Equation. Now, I know that a lot of people claim that basic thermodynamics don’t hold for humans. Simply, they are wrong. Invariably, the studies used to support this position are based on a faulty data set: to whit, they are drawing poor conclusions about what people SAY that they are eating..."

Read the rest at Lyle's excellent website.

Wednesday, July 21

warm up:

75 med ball cleans

then:
Deadlift 5-4-3-1

Deadlift BW; 90 seconds for reps
Tabata squats
Deadlift BW; 90 seconds for reps

Tuesday, July 20th

warm up:
3 RFT:
10 sit ups
10 push ups
10 air squats

then:
Power Clean 5-5-5

Rest

5RFT:

21 Power Cleans @ 105
15 Handstand Pushups

Monday, July 19th

Come in and celebrate Steve's 40th Birthday!

"Festive 40" chipper

40 push ups
40 med ball squat clean
40 box jumps
40 SDHP (53/35)KB
40 muscle snatch (high hang) (45)
40 Jumping back squats (45)

Friday July 16th, 2010

Power clean 3-3-3, sets across
Split jerk 3-3-3, sets across

5 min. AMRAP:
Burpee med-ball slam

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Quick Rundown of Overtraining and Fatigue
by Matt Perryman

I made this post on another forum, and it’s one of those things I tend to write off-the-cuff that tends to summarize things fairly well, so I thought I’d share. The context was a discussion about ‘overtraining’ and stress/fatigue in general.

The long and short of it is simple. Your brain (specifically the hypothalamus and pituitary gland) regulates the overall status of your body based on several feedback signals – many are released during exercise (both at the “muscle” level and at the “central” level in the brain), but “life” stuff like work, lack of sleep, poor diet, etc, can all contribute to that overall “stress” signal.

In the short term this isn’t a problem; however, the fatigue response takes time to dissipate, depending on how “much” of a stress you were exposed to. In workout terms this can be excessive volume, intensity, or both.

A workout or two by itself is very rarely enough to cause any major disruption, unless it’s one hell of a workout. However stress is cumulative; if you don’t recover between workouts, it will build up from session to session. When that happens, the hypothalamus responds accordingly – mainly by throwing the HPA(drenal) axis out of whack. This is where the symptoms of reduced SNS activity start to show up – disrupted sleep, lack of motivation, elevated resting HR, all of that. It’s a case of chronically elevated stress hormones where the body has been briefly overwhelmed by the accumulated stresses. This is also very strongly associated with inflammation; in fact, one of the strongest signals of this stress-response condition is the variety of pro-inflammatory compounds that are released during exercise. In many ways it’s not unlike being sick – signals mediated from the brain and body alter your body’s condition and your behavior.

In the short term, we call this overreaching. You can get into this condition with just a few weeks of excessive training/under-recovery. The good news is that it tends to reverse itself fairly quickly once rest + diet is provided.

However if you keep this up for weeks and months on end, you get to the real overtraining syndrome (OTS) which is the one you have to really worry about. The good news is that few people that aren’t really hardcore endurance athletes will ever reach this state – and that’s a good thing, because it can require somewhat dramatic measures to recover from. Lifting weights 4-5 times a week and doing a few (cumulative) hours of cardio each week isn’t going to cut it.

Simply put, the stress of a workout creates a “fatigue” effect (what I just described). Too much fatigue accumulates and you get the hormonal disruption and inflammation of overreaching. Overreach for too long and you get overtrained...

Read the rest here (@ Matt's excellent, no-nonsense blog).

Thurs. July 15

For Time:

Run 1 Mile (2 parking lot laps)
*Tabata Intervals (sprint 20 seconds, jog 10 seconds) until mile is complated
50 Deadlifts (135/95)
__________________________
*marksdailyapple.com

Persistence Hunting in the Park

In most locales, summer is upon us. The sun acts as powerful beacon, a call to action for even the habitually sedentary to venture out and frolic in its rays. Hopeful mothers and fathers nudge chubby kids with creaky Xbox fingers, barely able to grasp the brand new football with which they’ve been tasked, out the door to partake in a mysterious, archaic activity known as “play.” Running shoes are finally removed from shoeboxes and attached to feet. Excuses to avoid going outside grow exceedingly pathetic and totally unconvincing, even to the skilled self-deceivers, who can no longer deny the basic awesomeness of a summer day. Squinting into this wonderful, terrible new light, they all gather in public areas – parks, hiking trails, outdoor malls, beaches – each in turn making personal pledges (or fulfilling imposed ones) that this will be the summer they finally take advantage of the great outdoors.

They are also weak and defenseless and, especially as they try to right the metabolic ship with outdoor Chronic Cardio through the park/sidewalk/trail/track, thrown into a state of confusion by all the sights, smells, and fresh air accosting them. Stale air-conditioning this is not. They are unprepared for what awaits them.

You, however, have been preparing for this moment for months, if not years. You’ve been eating meat, vegetables, roots, and fruit, molding your body and stoking your furnace with healthy fat, appropriate amounts of glucose, and measured bouts of intense lifting, sprinting, and steady movement. Even if you’re just beginning your Primal journey, even if you’re still adjusting – you’re still way ahead of the rest of ‘em.

It is a good time to be a persistence hunter.

Next time your stomach rumbles for a little physical exertion, venture out to the local park or track. Any spot where people will be jogging will work. You could even hit up a trail, as long as you’re sure there’ll be joggers. (I did this once in the back of a 10k race). Strap on your shoes (or don’t), wear something comfortable (or wear as little as possible), and survey the area. It’s now sacred hunting ground. You are the hunter; you can have your pick of the lot.

Regard your prey. Pick a jogger, any jogger, and let him or her gain some distance on you. A few dozen yards, perhaps. Now, walk after your target.

Keep your eye on the target, but let it gain ground on you. This isn’t a race, remember. It’s a battle of wits, of picking and choosing your spots.

When your target is a few hundred yards ahead, start to jog. Don’t let it range too far ahead, but don’t over exert yourself. Kiss the ground with a soft stride, making as little noise as possible. If you’re not barefoot, run like you are. You wouldn’t want to tire early and come home empty-handed; you can only subsist on foraged bitter nuts for so long.

Keep that pace for a couple minutes. Now speed up a bit. If you begin to gain ground, stop before you catch up completely.

Now sprint! Sprint for thirty seconds, and really push it – you might even be licking at their heels, but do not pass your prey. You’re not ready to finish just yet.

Stop. Let them continue on. Once they’ve turned a corner, passed behind a bend, or otherwise disappeared from sight, continue on. Jog, but jog in fractals. Start, stop, and run in spurts. For this portion, you aren’t breaking up the hunt into jog/sprint/walk sections; you’re melding them all together on the fly. Sprint for two seconds, stop for three, then jog for ten. Leap over branches, vault over bushes. Hide behind a tree for a second or two. You can even drop to all fours and crawl along the trail for a bit. Get creative.

(By now, it’s obvious that you’re a bit of a nut. You’re going to look a little strange. Are you okay with that? You should be used to it by now.)

Once you catch sight of your target, catch up by any and all means. Sprint if you have to. Just pass them up (no actual hunting, of course) and take a breather. You’ll probably need it. Flop down on the ground, stretch out, because you deserve it. Keep your wits about you, though, for there’s more prey afoot.

Even as you rest up, start the process of selecting your next target. After all, it’s open season and your tribe is hungry.

If there are multiple joggers zigzagging all over the place in all directions, you might try switching to a new target every time a new one passes in the other direction. Follow one for a couple minutes, then switch to another going the opposite way. Sprint after that one, then jog/crawl back in the other direction. How close can you get and for how many times without any of them knowing you’re there? The possibilities are endless.

Why the mind games?

The success of a workout. Whether you actually motivate yourself enough to begin and complete it, your performance throughout, and your intensity hinges largely on your state of mind. Persistence hunting in the park (yeah, I know, I thought about calling it “stalking” in the park, but somehow that sounded wrong) is a fantastic way to visualize and compel you to workout without “working out.” You’re in the moment, but that moment doesn’t occur on a treadmill while zoning out to the TV; you stay engaged in the act of movement itself. You’re aware of your muscles contracting and extending. You feel each footfall, every tiny pebble, every expansion of your lungs. You can’t ignore your physicality, nor should you want to, because we are physical creatures whose physicality must be nurtured and stimulated for us to be whole and healthy.

Wed. July 14

15 Min AMRAP:

10 Pull Ups
10 ABMAT
10 Lunges (each leg)

Tues. July 13

Front Squat
3-3-3
Push Press
3-3-3

then

5 Min AMRAP:
Thrusters (95/65)

*for those of you who haven't figured it out... thrusters
are a combination of both the front squat and the push press. Enjoy.

Mon. July 12

For Time:

20 Handstand Push Ups (substitute 40 strict 45# plate press)
40 Toes to Bar
60 KB Swings (70/53)
__________________________
T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study: Finally, Exhaustively Discredited

http://freetheanimal.com/2010/07/t-colin-campbells-the-china-study-finally-exhaustively-discredited.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetheanimal+%28Free+the+Animal%29

Fri. July 9

Row 500m (damper on 4)
rest 1 min
Row 500m (damper on 6)
rest 1 min
Row 500m (damper on 8)
rest 1 min
Row 500m (damper on 10)

or

4 RFT:
Run 400m
50 Air Squats
_________________________
10 REASONS HEAVY WEIGHTS DON’T BULK UP THE FEMALE ATHLETE

Courtesy: EliteFTS.com

One of the most perpetuated myths in the fitness industry….and its allllll bullshit. This is the reason why we have Mademoiselle Fitness….Curves…..Women’s only areas in gyms where you’re as likely to find a barbell as you are to find an Olympian using the training facility.

And now…..the truth.

1. Women do not have nearly as much testosterone as men. In fact, according to Bill Kreamer in Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, women have about 15 to 20 times less testosterone than men. Testosterone is the reason men are men and women are women. After men hit puberty, they grow facial hair, their voice deepens, and they develop muscle mass. Because men have more testosterone, they are much more equipped to gain muscle. Because women do not have very much testosterone in their bodies, they will never be able to get as big as men.
2. The perception that women will bulk up when they begin a strength training program comes from the chemically-altered women on the covers of bodybuilding magazines. These “grocery stand models” are most likely pumped full of some extra juice. This is why they look like men. If you take the missing link that separates men from women and add it back in, what do you have? A man!
3. For women, toning is what happens when the muscle is developed through training. This is essentially bodybuilding without testosterone. Since the testosterone is not present in sufficient amounts, the muscle will develop, but it won’t gain a large amount of mass. The “toned” appearance comes from removing the fat that is covering a well-developed muscle.
4. Muscle bulk comes from a high volume of work. The repetition range that most women would prefer to do (8–20 reps) promotes hypertrophy (muscle growth). For example, a bodybuilding program will have three exercises per body part. For the chest, they will do flat bench for three sets of 12, incline for three sets of 12, and decline bench for three sets of 12. This adds up to 108 total repetitions. A program geared towards strength will have one exercise for the chest—flat bench for six sets of three with progressively heavier weight. This equals 18 total repetitions. High volume (108 reps) causes considerable muscle damage, which in turn, results in hypertrophy. The considerably lower volume (18 reps) will build more strength and cause minimal bulking.
5. Heavy weights will promote strength not size. This has been proven time and time again. When lifting weights over 85 percent, the primary stress imposed upon the body is placed on the nervous system, not on the muscles. Therefore, strength will improve by a neurological effect while not increasing the size of the muscles. And, according to Zatsiorsky and Kreamer in Science and Practice of Strength Training, women need to train with heavy weights not only to strengthen the muscles but also to cause positive adaptations in the bones and connective tissues.
6. Bulking up is not an overnight process. Many women think they will start lifting weights, wake up one morning, and say “Holy sh__! I’m huge!” This doesn’t happen. The men that you see who have more muscle than the average person have worked hard for a long time (years) to get that way. If you bulk up overnight, contact us because we want to do what you’re doing.
7. What the personal trainer is prescribing is not working. Many female athletes come into a new program and say they want to do body weight step-ups, body weight lunges, and leg extensions because it’s what their personal trainer back home had them do. However, many of these girls need to look in a mirror and have a reality check because their trainer’s so-called magical toning exercises are not working. Trainers will hand out easy workouts and tell people they work because they know that if they make the program too hard the client will complain. And, if the client is complaining, there’s a good chance the trainer might lose that client (a client to a trainer equals money).
8. Bulking up is calorie dependant. This means if you eat more than you are burning, you will gain weight. If you eat less than you are burning, you will lose weight. Unfortunately, most female athletes perceive any weight gain as “bulking up” and do not give attention to the fact that they are simply getting fatter. As Todd Hamer, a strength and conditioning coach at George Mason University said, “Squats don’t bulk you up. It’s the ten beers a night that bulk you up.” This cannot be emphasized enough.
If you’re a female athlete and training with heavy weights (or not), you need to watch what you eat. Let’s be real—the main concern that female athletes have when coming to their coach about gaining weight is not their performance but aesthetics. If you choose to ignore this fact as a coach, you will lose your athletes!
9. The freshman 15 is not caused by strength training. It is physiologically impossible to gain 15 lbs of muscle in only a few weeks unless you are on performance enhancing drugs. Yes the freshman 15 can come on in only a few weeks. This becomes more complex when an athlete comes to a new school, starts a new training program, and also has a considerable change in her diet (i.e. only eating one or two times per day in addition to adding 6–8 beers per evening for 2–4 evenings per week). They gain fat weight, get slower, and then blame the strength program. Of course, strength training being the underlying cause is the only reasonable answer for weight gain. The fact that two meals per day has slowed the athlete’s metabolism down to almost zero and then the multiple beers added on top of that couldn’t have anything to do with weight gain…it must be the lifting.
10. Most of the so-called experts are only experts on how to sound like they know what they are talking about. The people who “educate” female athletes on training and nutrition have no idea what they’re talking about. Let’s face it—how many people do you know who claim to “know a thing or two about lifting and nutrition?” Now, how many people do you know who actually know what they’re talking about, have lived the life, dieted down to make a weight class requirement, or got on stage at single digit body fat? Invariably, these so-called experts are also the people who blame their gut on poor genetics.

These so-called experts are the reason you see so many women doing sets of 10 with a weight they could do 20 or 30 times. They are being told by the experts that this is what it takes to “tone” the muscles. Instead, they are only wasting their time doing an exercise with a weight that is making no contribution to the fitness levels or the development of the muscle.

In case you haven’t figured it out by this point in the article, what is currently being done in fitness clubs to help female athletes tone their bodies is not working. It’s not helping these women get toned, and it is definitely not helping improve athletic performance. Maybe it’s time for a change. Contrary to the ineffective light weights currently being used, heavy weights offer many benefits for women including improved body composition, stronger muscles, decreased injury rate, and stronger bones (which helps prevent osteoporosis). Let’s try lifting some heavy weights and controlling our diet and watch this logical, science-based solution make the difference we’ve been looking for.

Thurs. July 8

Deadlift
5-5-5

then

21,15,9:

KB Swings (53/35)
Wall Ball (20/10)

Wed. July 7

For Time:

10 Handstand Push Ups
then
12,9,6,3 of:
Overhead Squats (95/65)
Burpees
then
10 Handstand Push Ups
_________________________

“Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” - Bruce Lee

Tues. July 6

"Angie"

For Time:
100 Pull Ups
100 Push Ups
100 Sit Ups
100 Squats

*you must complete all 100 reps of each movement before moving on to the next movement... no partitioning.
__________________________
marksdailyapple.com

How to Improve Your Sleep Posture

Yesterday, I posited that it’s not so much the bedding that matters in making for rejuvenating, nourishing sleep, but rather our sleeping position/posture. Man is the supreme adaptor, having proven himself capable of surviving in just about any natural environment, no matter the climate, topography, and available selection of edibles – and our bedding is no different. Of course, there is a limit to our adaptability. We couldn’t survive in the Antarctic or get a good night’s sleep in a mud pit. Thriving in the current food environment is definitely doable, but, as you well know, it takes a lot of effort to make it work. Luckily, we aren’t dealing with hydrogenated mattresses or high-fructose pillows, so the bedding situation isn’t so dire.

You can keep it pretty simple, in fact: if you’re getting good, pain-free sleep already, hacking isn’t necessary. Just keep doing what you’re doing and keep the bed you’ve got. (Keep reading, though.)

If you’re waking up with pain, though, we should reevaluate. Pain usually indicates an improper sleeping position, and that’s the easiest thing to fix (rather than buying an entirely new bed), so let’s look at some other options.

Sleeping in the supine position with a lengthened spine, as I mentioned yesterday, seems to be the least problematic. It’s relatively easy to attain, and as long as you don’t snore and drive your sleeping partner to retaliatory violence, you should be able to get a good night’s sleep and wake up without pain. I should note that I messed up a small detail regarding the spine lengthening; while I said you should lengthen the spine by pushing with your hands, it’s actually much easier pushing with your elbows. Gokhale’s book goes into far more detail, of course.

Another potential problem with sleeping on one’s back is that some people just can’t get comfortable enough to sleep. It can be rather boring. You can’t spoon your loved one (or a pillow) from that position, and there’s something about splaying out across the bed on your stomach or side that just feels good. Side or stomach sleeping, while satisfying, tends to be a bit more problematic. There’s more room for error.

But the allure is undeniable. It’s almost instinctual, isn’t it, to sleep on your side? I’m a firm believer in listening to your body, and if it’s telling you to sleep on your side, or stomach, maybe you should listen. Just make sure you do it right. Side sleeping is the most popular position worldwide, but many of our musculoskeletal systems have spent their time on earth sitting in bad chairs, hunched over keyboards, and exercising incorrectly in bulky shoes. We might be a bit too “tainted” to launch into instinctual sleeping positions without worry. Side sleeping can often aggravate shoulder injuries, and if you’ve got poor thoracic mobility and a strong tendency toward kyphosis of the shoulder blades, sleeping on either side will exaggerate the kyphosis of that side. If you’re a right-side sleeper, your right shoulder will slump forward all night under your bodyweight. People without kyphosis can probably handle side sleeping without much of a problem – but how many people don’t have some modicum of slumping going on?

Gokhale ‘s book contains a lesson on side lying, which involves lengthening your spine without turning it into a hunch, which is how most people nowadays sleep on their side: in the fetal position with a strong forward curl of the spine. All you folks who like to cuddle pillows, I’m pointing at you. Be wary of the forward curl! She shows you how to maintain the comfort of side lying with bent legs and a straight, lengthened spine. I bet you could even slip a big comfy pillow in there and stick the position.

For you stomach sleepers, physiotherapist Michael Tetley has some interesting observations – and recommendations – based on his time with several groups of African tribesmen. He comes off as a bit wacky, but his observations are useful. His first example is the side lying position. The visual juxtaposition of a mountain gorilla with a Kenyan man is striking, with both subjects lying on their side with impeccable form and long, straight spines.

Next, he recommends sleeping in the recovery position, sort of a half-stomach, half-side sleeping position with the bottom arm looping across the front of the neck to the opposite shoulder for neck support and the outside arm resting gently on the ground or bed. In this position, the bottom leg is positioned as a resting place for the penis to avoid it “[dangling] in the dust…bitten by bugs.” Let’s hope genital-feeding insects aren’t an issue in your bed.

He writes of Tibetan caravaneers sleeping on their shins when the ground is wet and cold, presumably because the lack of significant muscle in the contact areas reduces heat loss. I tried this out and found it initially uncomfortable, but after some fooling around I managed to get into a fairly comfy spot. The key was sitting back with the hips and resting lighting on the forearms, rather than slumping forward and resting on your head. Try it out.

Then there’s the lookout position, where you use your arms as pillows while lying on your stomach. He doesn’t mention what to do with the penis, but I imagine it’s resting on a thigh. This guy is really all about protecting his junk. I guess we all are, though. He’s just honest about it.

My favorite is the quadrupedal lying position. It looks awkward, what with the spine rotation and flexing, but it’s actually pretty darn comfortable. I did have to play around a bit. If you look at the picture, the bottom leg is drawn up pretty closely toward his chest. I found that letting it drop back a bit felt better. Either way, playing with that bottom leg position seems to be key to finding the sweet spot.

It’s interesting that all of the positions he details are couched in utility: protecting the penis from bugs, keeping the ears clear to hear oncoming threats, avoiding cold. In today’s world, most of us rarely, if ever, have to worry about keeping a lookout, or watching for biting bugs, but the fact that our ancestry evolved under similar conditions means that these protective sleeping positions still make sense. Really, though, it’s all about protection. Gokhale’s lying recommendations are designed to protect your musculoskeletal system from degradation and dysfunction, while Tetley’s are primarily about avoiding exogenous dangers (without compromising the body’s form, of course).

Mon. July 5

10 AM Class Today. Come on in and see what happens. We'll be back on our regular schedule tomorrow.

Sat. July 3

4 RFT:

Teams of 2, one person works at a time, both run.

30 Burpee/Deadlifts (135)
40 KB Swings
Run w/Med Ball (300m)

Fri. July 2

Back Squat
5-5-5

then

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 of:
KB Swings (53/35)
Knees to Elbows

Thurs. July 1

15 Min AMRAP:

5 Burpees
10 Lunges (each leg)
15 Box Jumps
__________________________
from: http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/1/1/2

The hunter's counterpoint – practical observations on ketogenic diets

Although high-carbohydrate diets might be more effective in short-term tests of high-intensity exercise, there are multiple clues in the published literature that the debilitating effects of ketogenic diets are overstated. Not only is there the demographic evidence that whole populations of people lived for millennia as hunters, but there are many reports of Europeans crossing over to live within the cultures of these hunting societies without apparent impediment.

One of the earliest documented demonstrations of physical stamina during a ketogenic diet was the Schwatka 1878–80 expedition in search of the lost Royal Navy Franklin expedition. The Schwatka expedition, sponsored by the New York Herald and the American Geographical Society, departed from the west coast of Hudson's Bay in April of 1879 with 4 Caucasians, 3 families of Inuits, and 3 heavily laden dog sleds. Totaling 18 people, they started out with a month's supply of food (mostly walrus blubber) and a prodigious supply of ammunition for their hunting rifles. After covering over 3000 miles on foot over ice, snow and tundra, all 18 members of the original party plus their 44 dogs returned to Hudson's Bay in March of 1880. Once their initial provisions were depleted, the expedition's only source of additional food was hunting and fishing, as there were no other sources of supply along their route.

The leader of this expedition, Lt. Frederick Schwatka, was a graduate of both West Point and Bellevue Hospital Medical College. His summary of the expedition was published as a news article in the New York Herald in the Fall of 1880, but his written diary was lost for 85 years until its discovery and publication by the Marine Historical Association of Mystic CT in 1965 [6]. This fascinating 117-page saga describes how Schwatka, a frontiersman and U.S. Army surgeon, collaborated with his Inuit guides to accomplish a remarkable feat of physical endurance.

In one notation, Schwatka provides an interesting insight into his weaning from their initial supply of carbohydrate-containing food.

"When first thrown wholly upon a diet of reindeer meat, it seems inadequate to properly nourish the system, and there is an apparent weakness and inability to perform severe exertive fatiguing journeys. But this soon passes away in the course of two or three weeks."

This observation, written a century before the current author first came to grips with the issue of "keto-adaptation", offers an early clue to resolve the dichotomy between impaired performance with low carbohydrate diets in the laboratory and their lack of debilitating effects when taken among people practiced in their use. That Schwatka was not impaired by his prolonged experience eating meat and fat is evidenced by his diary entry for the period 12–14 March 1880, during which he and an Inuit companion walked the last 65 miles in less than 48 hours to make a scheduled rendezvous with a whaling ship and complete his journey home.

Twenty-six years later, a Harvard-trained anthropologist named Vilhjalmur Stefansson entered the Arctic with the purpose of studying the Inuit language and culture. Having been born in 1879 in Manitoba and grown up in North Dakota, it is unlikely that Stefansson was aware of the Schwatka expedition or its reported technique of extended dogsled travel while living by hunting. However when separated from his expedition and thus his source of supply over the winter of 1906–7, Stefansson was taken in by a group of Inuit on the Canadian Arctic coast. With the arrival of spring in June of 1907, he both spoke their language and had acquired their skill of living and traveling by dogsled on a hunter's diet.

For the next decade, Stefansson traveled extensively over the arctic mainland and among the islands to the north. During this period, he was away from the outposts of European settlement for periods of up to 18 months at a time, and in the remote regions of the Canadian Arctic he lived with groups of Inuit for whom he was the first European they had met.

Stefansson wrote extensively about these experiences in both the scientific literature and in books for the lay public [7]. One of the main themes of his writing was the adaptation of the Inuit culture to survive as nomadic groups in the arctic on a diet consisting solely of the products of hunting and fishing. Coming as it did in the same time period that the science of nutrition was blossoming with the discovery and characterization of vitamins (eg, the first vitamin to be chemically defined was thiamin by Funk in 1911), Stefansson's claim that one could live and function well on the products of just one food group caused tremendous controversy [8].

Subjected to great criticism and even scorn, Stefansson agreed to recreate the Inuit diet under scientific observation. Therefore, for the calendar year of 1929 he and a colleague from his arctic explorations ate a diet consisting of meat and fat for 12 months. This experiment, supervised by Dr. Eugene DuBois, was conducted at Bellevue Hospital in New York. For the first 3 months of this study, the two explorers were under constant observation to guarantee dietary compliance, after which they were allowed more freedom of movement but with frequent tests to document that they remained in ketosis. This study was reported in multiple peer-reviewed publications, the primary reports being published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 1930 [9,10], As noted by DuBois [8], the study results were essentially "negative", in that both subjects survived the 12 months in apparent good health, having no signs of scurvy (which was predicted to occur within the first 3 months) or other deficiency diseases.

It is interesting to note from the careful observations published from the Bellevue study that Stafansson ate relatively modestly of protein, deriving between 80–85% of his dietary energy from fat and only 15–20% from protein [9]. This was, and still remains, at odds with the popular conception that the Inuit ate a high protein diet, whereas in reality it appears to have been a high fat diet with a moderate intake of protein. In his writings, Stefansson notes that the Inuit were careful to limit their intake of lean meat, giving excess lean meat to their dogs and reserving the higher fat portions for human consumption [11].

It is also interesting to conjecture that the vigorous defense of his arctic observations by Stefansson may have led indirectly to the development of the carbohydrate loading hypothesis. Stefansson was a polarizing influence in the field of nutrition, and his advocacy of pemmican as an emergency ration for troops during the Second World War led directly to the Kark study quoted above, which in turn was a predecessor to many comparative dietary trials performed in Europe and the U.S. in later decades.

Wed. June 30

Warm Up:
50 ABMAT

then

7 RFT:
7 Power Cleans (95/65)
7 Front Squats (95/65)
7 Push Press (95/65)

then

Pick something you suck at (something that kills you during the wods) and practice it for 10 minutes.

Tues. June 29

Deadlift
3-3-3

then

21,15,9 of:
KB Swings (53/35)
Ring Dips
__________________________
Just Tell Me What I Should Eat

http://talktomejohnnie.com/diet/what-should-i-eat

Mon. June 28

"Murph"

In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005.
This workout was one of Mike's favorites and he'd named it 'Body Armor.' From here on it will be referred to as 'Murph' in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is.

Run 1 Mile
100 Pull Ups
200 Push Ups
300 Squats
Run 1 Mile

*First, run a mile. Then, you may partition pull ups, push ups and squats as needed. You must complete the total numbers before returning to finish the last mile.

Visit the SEAL OF HONOR FACEBOOK page here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SEAL-OF-HONOR/182249954768

Also, become a fan of Fallen US Navy Seals on FACEBOOK here:
http://www.facebook.com/crossfitmt#!/pages/Fallen-US-Navy-SEALs/131872973491866

Sat. June 26

Teams of 2:

Run 800m
3 Rounds of:
30 Muscle or Power Snatch (65)
50 Double Unders/100 Singles
Run 800m

*must finish as a team, both people may lift and jump rope simultaneously.