You guys have all heard my rant by now. Stock your fridge with meat and veggies, nuts and seeds, and some fruit. Eat real food. And if it’s Friday night and your friends are out for beer and pizza… have some dang beer and pizza… and get back on track the next day. Eating good 85% of the time means you eat better than 99% of the country! If it’s your birthday, don’t feel bad about having some cake! Anniversary? Go to a nice place and go all out! True fitness is about enjoying life.
My vices? Good beer, Hudson’s burgers, and Catherine’s brownies (have some ready on November 9th, please
Check out this article at the Fitness Spotlight for a more indepth look at “the cheat meal.”
Ever wonder why we suggest you guys take off those squishy running shoes when its heavy back squat day? Check out this informative post by CrossFit Delaware Valley. And you guys are always making fun of my Chucks!
Sprints are something Jonathan and I have incorporated into our training recently, and we’ve both had great results. It’s also nice to get outside this time of year and enjoy the weather. There is nothing quite like running as hard as you can for 40 seconds, resting for a few minutes, and repeating… it doesn’t sound like much, but it will have you sucking wind at about the 20 second mark!
So many people think running has to involve long distance, slow paced jogging; screw that… CrossFitters RUN! You will get so much more out of 4 x 400 m than you ever will out of jogging 5 plus miles.
The first video is of my team doing some steep hill sprints. It took us about 50 seconds all out to get to the top. The second vid shows Mark from Mark’s Daily Apple doing some cool beach sprints.
What do you eat for breakfast? Here was mine this morning: 3 eggs, some avocado, cheddar cheese, strawberries, and coffee. You have heard this before, and it is true: breakfast is the most important meal of the day- take the time to do it right!
Power comes from your hips. It doesn’t matter if you’re jumping, punching, running, or throwing. It can be seen in the “hip pop” of the kettle bell swing, and the “dip drive” of the push press. It is critical during the second pull of a clean. Unfortunately, many of us have some degree of hip dysfunction that reduces power and stability, limiting our overall athleticism. This is called Muted Hip Function, or MHF.
MHF can be seen during a push press when the legs compensate for the hip’s failure. When this happens, there is no angle created at the hips during the dip. The knees will bend excessively and pass too far over the toes, compensating for the lack of hip angle. You can feel this happen when the weight is shifted from your heels to your toes during the dip, and your center of gravity goes backward. The stress is shifted from the glutes and hams to the quads, putting shear forces on the knees. You are limiting your power to what can be produced by your knees.
So what can you do to mitigate MHF? Practice the push press with a PVC. Once you feel that good dip drive with equal angles at hips and knees, do it with the bar. Slowly work up with the weight and focus on driving through your heels.
Check out these 2 pics from CrossFit NYC. Post to comments which one has MHF.
For more info on hip function, check out this great post on The Fitness Spotlight, “Developing Hip Function.”
Some proper weightlifting going on here. A few things to note:
Check out how quickly the guy at 2:03 in drops under the weight. This is an example of really, really good technique: making an Olympic Record look like a warm-up.
Style points: the Permullet about 2:30 in
How athletic are these guys? Check out the dude 3:00 in (Not so much the guy 3:16 in).
A few of you have been asking about diet and nutrition. To put it simply: Eat fresh foods. Nothing processed, ever. Pretty basic, right? Basic, until you realize that this means no beer. Or pizza. Or pie.
So, what are you to do? Obviously, you care about your health- otherwise, you would not put yourself through the WOD on a regular basis. Most people, probably yourself included, enjoy food. Good food is part of a happy life, right? Here is what I propose:
Let’s find a balance. For two weeks, I will be swearing off all processed foods, especially all grains. At the end of the two weeks, I will allow myself a cheat day to eat whatever I want. The goal is two-part: One, I want to see how my body reacts to zero processed foods, and two, I want to see how a grain free body reacts to a sudden influx of grain-based food. The balance part of the deal comes later- I feel that once we understand how our body reacts to processed foods, we will be less apt to eat them. That does not mean that I will never have pizza again; far from it. I just want to make the majority of my meals as optimal as possible, and truly enjoy the crappy food when I do eat it.
I will blog the zero-processed progress here. Any of you that wish to join in, please do. Post your comments along with my posts. The trial begins January 26th!
With the holidays just around the corner, people are busier than normal. It’s an easy time of year to let things fall by the wayside, namely your fitness and nutrition. Just keep in mind, the key to your overall fitness is consistency. It’s ok to miss a workout once in a while, just make sure you get back in there asap!
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