Here is a thought regarding nutrition from my brain. This, idea as a whole concept, has no scientific backing and is just something that I made up. So if you are smart you may want to forget that you ever read this. This is my unsubstantiated nutritional hierarchy.
Cut the Crap-In this phase you are eliminating all of the junk from your diet. Think Paleo-ish or at least a real food type of program. The biggest changes will be eliminating grains, alcohol and sugar (especially if losing fat is a goal of yours). This phase will have huge results in regard to your body composition, performance and general health. Just taking this step will put you ahead of most everyone in our country, but it is really just the beginning.
Planning for Performance- At this point all the junk is out of your diet. Almost all of your food is of high quality. Now you need to use some portioning tools to figure out how much of this high quality food to eat. You will know you have gotten this part right when you look, feel and perform great.
Nutrient Nuances- If you have reached this point you are eating almost all high quality foods in portions that are maximizing your performance and over all health. The last step is to extract every ounce of nutrients from the foods you are eating. This is usually where things really start getting weird. Here are some things you will be thinking about in this phase. All your meat and eggs will be from grass fed/pastured animals. You will be researching which fruits and veggies must be organic due to high pesticide levels. All dairy will be raw and grass fed. You will be making and using bone broths regularly in your cooking to gain the naturally occurring collagen and glucosamine from the ingredients. You will research how to maximize your dietary Vitamin D and Omega-3 fatty acids. These are just a few of the things that can be done to maximize the nutrient quality of your food.
What do you think? Post thoughts to comments.
AM Class
Happy rest day!
PM Classes
“Tyler”
Five rounds for time of:
7 Muscle-ups
95 pound Sumo-deadlift high-pull, 21 reps
Yeah, we’ve all had them. Some days its just one of those days. Well, ®yan (look at that cool “R” in Ryan, that happens when you hold the “option” key down and press the “R” key…at least it does on a Mac. Who know if PCs have come that far yet-right Casey?) just had one of those days. You know the ones. You come in feeling ok and then you walk out on cloud nine because you hit an 8 rep PR on your max pull ups and a 20# PR on your back squat. That is what ®yan accomplished in an hour’s time! Not a bad hour. This is a testament to his hard work and consistency in the gym. He has been here for a few months now and his gains have been nothing short of crazy-delicious (which, by the way, is typical when CFing hard). Hard work and good programming will go a long way!
What about long term(I’m talking years)? Are these types of performance gains realistic long term? The answer is no. There is a law of diminishing returns at work here. How long will they last? That varies. Generally, the more deconditioned an athlete is walking through the door the longer these types of gains will last. Even at that they will get smaller and smaller until one reaches their genetic potential.
The real art is in figuring out how to maximize these smaller gains long term. A few thoughts on how to do that:
First and foremost, dial in your nutrition. CF athletes that eat right make huge gains for a long, long time. If your performance gains halt prematurely, take a good, hard look at what you eat.
Use your warm up. We play approximately 8 different sports as CFers. We are spread thin. Use your warm up to work on weaknesses that are not being hit regularly in the WOD.
Look long term. Focus on PRs over a year’s time. Don’t obsess over every Fran or Total. Some WODs will be more skill oriented (still with great intensity mind you) and may cause you to take a step or two back, but the learning taking place will move you forward in the long term.
Plan your PRs. Work on a skill regularly for six months and then when a WOD comes up that heavily relies on that skill, make sure you are fresh that day and nail that PR.
AM Class
Five rounds for time of:
135 pound Hang squat clean, 15 reps
30 Push-ups
Post time to comments.
PM Classes
For time:
21 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
18 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
15 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
12 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
9 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
6 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
3 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
Three amazing CFS ladies. All move well and work hard in the gym. Which squat do you like best? Now to be fair, I have no idea at what point in the WOD these pics were taken so take that into consideration when commenting. Nice job ladies. Keep up the good work!
We just finished a good round of Annie here this week and it brought some thoughts to mind. First, what a great WOD. Very non-intimidating, but a real challenge once you get into it. Beyond that, I love this WOD because of the heavy reliance on double under proficiency to post a good time. The double under highlights some of the forgotten aspects of fitness. Coordination, agility, balance and accuracy. These are what some call the learned or practiced physical skills. Meaning the ones that are very neurological in nature and improve as your body gets better at sending those neurological signals (as opposed to something like stamina which occurs more through physiological adaptation of muscles and energy use and delivery systems). These general physical skills often take a back seat to more popular aspects of fitness like strength and cardio/respiratory endurance. When Annie shows up all of a sudden we wish we had spent a bit more time with coordination, agility, balance and accuracy. Don’t get me wrong, we practice these skills in other movements, but I don’t think any rely as heavily on them as the double under. As CrossFitters we want to be proficient in all 10 general physical skills (this link from CrossFit LIS has a great little breakdown on them). Find your weaknesses and systematically eliminate them.
Here is a great article from the CF Journal about Greg Amundson, one of the early CrossFit monsters, his battle with double unders, how they kept him out of the CF Games and what other surprising things improved in his work and fitness life once he became proficient at them. Yes, you will have to subscribe to read it. You should be subscribed already-it is the best $25 you can spend (have I ever said that before?).
Great job on Fran everyone! The energy in the gym this morning was crazy. Everyone brought a ton of intensity. A couple note worthy performances, Ryan completed his first rxed Fran and Casey shaved 2:45 off of his time with a 7:41 rxed Fran. This was a tough week with a 5k and Fran. All performances were truly inspiring to watch.
For a CFer a 5k is hard stuff for a couple reasons, whether you run it or row it. First, it is boring. We are so spoiled with the constant variation of our wods from day to day and within the wods themselves that a hard 20+ minute effort of one monostructural activity is a huge mental challenge. Another reason it is so tough is that we don’t ever go for a leisurely jog or row. It is always for time. Whether you PR or not, the expectation is that you will give all that you have that day. I am sure that there were many people who wanted to duck this wod, but you came anyways. We had butts and backs burning 2k into the row, and we had tears on some efforts due to exertion. You brought your best. Joyce, above, rowed her first ever 5k in 23:47. That is a great effort. Great job pushing through everyone. Doing hard stuff is always worthwhile.
9 AM Class
“Fran”
Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups
