Monthly Archives: February 2009
February 26, 2009
4 Rounds for time
15 One Arm Snatch – Left, 40/20
15 One Leg Squat – Left
15 One Arm Snatch – Right, 40/20
15 One Leg Squat – Right
ARTICLE: Doctors Advised To Skip Scare Tactics
“Once patients have got over the shock of being at high risk of heart disease, they then tend to underplay their risk,” says Dr Farrimond. “They compare themselves [favourably] with, say, others of the same age. In the past, researchers have thought we need to scare people into feeling at risk to make them change. This study suggests that even those who downplayed their risk still made changes, such as taking statins or exercising more. In other words, we don’t need to scare people to get results. Clinical staff need to find other ways of encouraging patients to make the necessary lifestyle changes, such as offering [personalized] advice.” [Read full article]
Isn’t that our natural tendency? We compare our lameness to everyone else’s lameness and determine that because we are less lame than they are (in our own opinion) that we are pretty good. This article is kind of psychobabbly but I think the overriding point is fair. We don’t make needed changes in our lives in large part because we don’t know what to do. Pride can be a humbling experience.
Part of why I love CrossFit is because it produces that “ah ha” moment for everyone who tries it. You can’t have your maiden voyage WOD and not know you have tried something different. Some people take that learning and dive in, other realize they aren’t up for it. Either way, a more informed decision is the result.
We have seen tremendous physical adaptations at CrossFit Redmond because of the embrace of constantly varied, function movements performed at high intensity.
I’ll let the doctors adopt a no-scare bedside manner. Hopefully you never completely lose the fear of your workout. If you do, add a bigger plate to the barbell.
February 25, 2009
7 x 3 Deadlift
3 Rounds for time
50 Walking Lunge
30 GHD Sit-ups
30 Back Extensions
Though the 6am should probably expect FGB.
February 24, 2009
“Fight Gone Bad”
In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.
This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating.
Wall Ball Shots, 20lb
Sumo Deadlift Highpull, 75lbs
Box Jump, 20″ box
Push Press, 75lbs
Row
Being Mentally Tough
Today’s WOD will clearly show who is mentally tough and who is still working on it. You have a full minute rest between round to breathe and have a drink so that leaves 5 minutes to grunt out reps. Fight Gone Bad was written to train MMA fighters; it mimics their three five minute round fights.
Being tough in a workout doesn’t come naturally. Mental WOD toughness comes and goes with the WODs. I recently posted about a workout that turned me into a big baby. It was designed to punish me and I was crushed before the first round was done. When you ‘know’ you can’t finish the workout, what do you do? I ground it out muttering and hating the entire thing, but I finished.
So how do you develop mental toughness? The only way I can think of is to push yourself through it. Here are some strategies I use, when I’m not being a wimp.
Quick Short Rests
Decide BEFORE your workout how many breaths you will get when you take a break. I usually use a five breath count and then get back to work. A good guide to your break is that if you can talk you are rested enough to get back to it.
Do you really need a water break?
Sometimes you need a water bottle break. If you have a cold or it’s particularly hot or if you are just dehydrated, you may need some moisture so you can keep going. OK. I do that more than I wish I did but if you are going to have a water break plan it so you can do it quickly. Take the top off your water bottle and set it by your work station. A quick up and down is all you need and it only takes a couple seconds. I often see people walk across the gym, around someone, unscrew the cap, take a drink, re-screw the cap, make a comment, ask about a friend and then wander back to their barbell. That isn’t developing toughness.
Plan your strategy
Even a short 21-15-9 WOD requires some for thought. Have a plan and do your best to keep to it. Maybe you need to break up the reps into thirds. Maybe you can get as 21 and 9 but need to split the 15. If you don’t have a goal you will probably give yourself more slack.
Beat yourself up
Admit it. Taking an air break, getting a drink and planning your WOD don’t mean the pain is gone. When I workout I remember an obnoxious (and really obese) basketball coach I had. He made us repeat “PAIN PRODUCES CHANGE!” while we did wall sits for what seemed like hours. He couldn’t run the length of the court, but he was still right. Pain does produce the changes you want so you might as well get some.
Increase your days at CrossFit
The more days you are in the gym the more likely you are to get mentally tough. It the truth. You will get better physical AND mental results if you train more often.
Rest
After a good run of WODs it’s time to let your body rest and to recover mentally. If you work out 3 days in a row, on day three your coming rest day can be enough motivation to hammer out one… more… rep, and then get some more. Rest is a very important part of CrossFit. I’ve only banned a few of you from working out the next day, if I haven’t banned you, you probably are not in danger of over training.
That's an intense dude!
February 23, 2009
Complete 5 rounds of:
1 Shoulder Press
3 Push Press
5 Push Jerks
Increase weight each round.
Record weight for each round.
February 22, 2009
REST DAY
Are you an informed nutrition skeptic?
Then you will probably like this post. If you can sit for 15 minutes and read through a bit of a technical article you will be rewarded with a great example of why we need to be informed skeptics when it comes to nutrition “research” and exercise “science”.
Quoting a chunk of the summary:
Existing health and safety education on dietary protein, including that geared toward athletes, is not entirely congruent with the relatively small amount of direct scientific evidence on the topic. There have been attempts to review the literature but often controversy, debate, misinformation, and a lack of needed evidence is observed [1,4,6,7]. The International Society of Sports Nutrition position statement, being the most recent sports nutrition-focused review on dietary protein safety, presented a balance of positive and negative literature on dietary protein but did not include safety data specific to athletes. Healthy sedentary persons differ from athletes in a number of ways. The omission of athletic data in such reviews is not surprising as few studies have been performed and none, to the knowledge of this review’s authors, have documented long term (multi-year) effects of purposefully-sought dietary protein among athletes. This review has sought to describe the small amount of existing safety data specific to (resistance) athletes and point out where apparently none exist.
Yikes! What this means is that respected sports nutritionist and exercise scientist have been making pronouncements about the unhealthy affects of high, not even excessive, protein diets for athletes who use resistance training. That’s you CrossFitter!
Another excerpt:
University textbooks, instructors, and various forms of literature from personal training groups and athletic organizations continue to use dissuasive language surrounding dietary protein. Due to the widely known health benefits of dietary protein and a growing body of evidence on its safety profile, this is unfortunate.
Unfortunate indeed!
These are the “experts” so they must be right. But the article specifically looks into the “research” and show it to be essentially unusable in making any conclusions. Yet the “experts” rely on such shaky research to make their dietary pronouncements, through important sounding organizations and expect us to take them seriously.
Don’t just be a skeptic, be an INFORMED skeptic. With a little understanding of analytics, research, funding and a bit of logical thinking you will easily be able to see through the “expert” organizations dogma. Start thinking for yourself!
As the founder of CrossFit, Greg Glassman so pithily put it:
“The world’s most successful athletes and coaches rely on exercise science the way deer hunters rely on the accordion.”
ARTICLE
From the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition
Dietary protein safety and resistance exercise: what do we really know?
February 21, 2009
Complete for time
Run 800m
5 Rounds of
7 Deadlifts
14 Push-ups
21 Ball Slams
Run 800m
February 20, 2009
5 x 5 Hanging Squat Snatches
For time
75 Overhead Squats, 95/65
When doing your snatches, be patient on your deadlift and then explode on your pulls. Get the shoulders involved and keep the bar close. Catch in an overhead squat. Let yourself squat down a little more than you need. Get used to feeling the catch.
Watch each other perform the overhead squats. Get to full depth and don’t let your knees cave in. Here is an example of the WOD. What do you notice about their OHS?
The Mouse and Me
