Nutrition – Page 18 – SNORIDGE CROSSFIT

Food for Thought

Intense exercise is only part of the equation. Don’t neglect your nutrition:

The Real Food Pyramid:

Wondering about what is “Paleo”? Here’s a great write up with extensive info, links and answers to the most common questions you may have about the Paleo Diet. Nutrition is the area most people neglect in their approach to improving overall health and fitness. You already put in the time to working out hard, now take the time to read the two links below and then put into practice the results based and proven methods outlined for optimum health. What have you got to lose other than several pounds and tons of inflammation?

What is the Paleo Diet? – FitBomb

Better yet do you want to see your abs? The answer isn’t doing a bunch of crunches. It’s your diet.

Read why grains are the enemy:

“The Definitive Guide to Grains” by Mark’s Daily Apple

Break It Up

For Time:
50 Deadlift (245#/165#)
50 Burpee Box Jumps (24″/20″)

* Partition the reps however you want and go for time

Results

View this photo

Who liked the idea of breaking up your own rep scheme today into whatever you thought was fastest? Getting to practice your own “strategery” for a WOD is fun and a good way to do your own WOD programming. Putting the reps into a set of numbers that allows you to continually move instead of standing and resting takes some skill to approach a workout that maximizes your strengths and minimizes your weaknesses.

Today we also had a few Ft. Lewis CrossFitters pay us a visit. Welcome to Frank, Zach and Mark who all dropped-in and worked hard with the AM class. They do CrossFit for physical training with their Stryker Company daily. After the WOD they stuck around and worked on a couple things and Mark almost got his 1st muscle-up. Stick with it and you will have it in no time! Thanks guys for dropping in and more importantly thanks for what you do for all of us.

Welcome to Teri, Pam, Rhonda, Colleen, Angie, Tricia, Donna, Krista, Jim, Brett, Jay, Sara, Debra, Shelley and Jennifer who are all new this month and recently completed or are almost complete with Elements! I hope I didn’t miss anyone! Remember to introduce yourself to the new faces or it’s a 15 burpee penalty.

Notes:

Quick Highlights of the Australia Regional: Day 1 – video [wmv] [mov]

Read: 174,203 Things You Can Do Instead of Watching TV – Whole9

Now go turn off the TV and get busy!

Brad and Jenn enjoy a Paleo steak dinner on vacation. Now that’s a steak! (In Crocodile Dundee voice):

Sun-sational day!

5 rounds for time:

250m Row
10 Deadlifts (225#/155#)
30 AbMat Sit-Ups

Results

View this photo
View this photo

Welcome to Pat’s Wheelhouse. Training continues for the Masters:

Quote of the Day: “Free Range chicken ain’t free and that ain’t no range. Chickens are incarcerated; some are more feces pecking, death row toxic than others.” ~ Ted Nugent (my crazy uncle)

Finally the sun appears. This weekend we will likely return to the usual of showers interrupted by periods of rain alternating with shitty cold, bone chilling drizzle.

Do you have a WOD you want to see again or for a first time? It could be a benchmark, Hero, strength, team, main site, or one we have done here. I won’t promise we will do it soon but will work it into the programming if we haven’t done it recently. Post to comments.

Notes:

Josh H. made the CF Affiliate Blog today!

This may become my next drink of choice for the summer (besides my year round drink of choice – Ana’s house margarita): Caveman Cocktail – Seaside Kitchen

Highlights from “Helen Meets Grace”, Mammograms In Action fundraiser – video [wmv] [mov]

Kids copy what they see:

"Gwen"

For Load:

15-12-9 reps of
Clean and Jerk

Rules:

Choose a weight
Touch and Go only at the floor; no dumping
No Re-grip allowed
Rest only off the ground and as needed between sets
Use same load each set to be RX’d

Results

View this photo

Nate, Justin (and Mollie below) meet Gwen:

This strength WOD is and oldie but goodie. This WOD was an early mainstay in CrossFit prior to Grace or Isabel. It became “Gwen” and has always been a workout where the goal is to pick a load, stay unbroken and go touch and go. It’s a much different training effect when you are forced to hold onto that bar or suffer a “fail”. Who thought this was harder than Grace? Who started with a weight that became too heavy or too hard to hold and had to reset? Learning your upper limits on a lift isn’t truly failing, it’s testing your max and your technique. That is a success in and of itself.

Sometimes failing is succeeding: Read “That’s Not What Ships Are For” by Melissa Hartwig of Whole9

Who was top dog for the 2 Minute Double-Under Challenge today?

This guy! 206 reps for Sean (sorry Don)!

Notes:

On May 30th we will be doing the Murph Hero WOD for Memorial Day. Who was Murph? A Medal of Honor recipient that was killed in Afghanistan in 2005; his story and that of Seal Team 10 is incredible. Read about him here.

Nutrition:

There is a nutrition seminar/talk with Todd Widman at CF Marysville tomorrow (Thursday 5/4) from 6-9pm. Cost is $10. If you want to get great information on the Paleo diet and the effects of proper nutrition in a very easy and practical forum then this is it!

“Cutting Bell Peppers” with Nick Massie – video [wmv] [mov]

"CrossFit Games Open 11.1"

CrossFit Games Open 11.1

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
30 Double-unders
15 Power snatches (75#/55#)

For a downloadable PDF of the workout, click here.

CrossFit Games Open 11.1 workout instructions – video [wmv] [mov]

Results

View this photo
View this photo

Don hits WOD 11.1:

Judging…still judging:

Today we kicked off the CF Games Open (which runs the next 6 weeks) and everyone got a chance to come in and do the WOD. Whether you are competing or not, each week we will program the Open WOD on Wednesday for everyone to have a chance to complete it either scaled or as RX’d. Later in the week the competitors only on Team Squatch will get additional opportunities on Friday and Saturday to complete it too for competition.

If you aren’t competing and want to do the Open WOD’s then plan ahead! Each Wednesday is your only chance!

The community and camaraderie of our box was on display as the evening classes had a big group and then people stuck around to cheer on those competing. The energy truly helped everyone push themselves along for each and every rep.

Notes:

WOD Demo with Laurie Galassi – video [wmv] [mov]

The History of the CrossFit Games by Roadside Entertainment forReebok – video [wmv] [mov] [HD mov – Download Only]

Worth reading! Shocking, a study finds that gluten basically sucks! 😉 At least it’s in the mainstream media now.

Clues to Gluten Sensitivity – Wall Street Journal

Team Thruster

In teams of two, complete for time:

100 Thrusters (135#/95#)

* Alternate between athletes every minute (only one works at a time)

* Starting at the beginning of each minute you must complete 5 burpees; with remaining time in each minute complete max reps of thrusters. Stop every minute to complete the burpees before continuing with thrusters

Results

View this photo
View this photo

Lindsay thrusters while her teammates Amanda and Ziggy look on:

We are happy to announce EFT is finally set up! This is our preferred method of payment. Which means if you can get set up for us Michelle won’t have to send you a reminder email and you won’t have to remember to bring in a check!

Please complete the following steps if you haven’t done so already:

Click on the MindBody Badge link on the left site of the site (Under SIgn up and Pay Online)
On the MindBody welcome page, follow the steps to set up a profile
After you create a profile, select the “Online Store” tab
Select “Contracts/Packages” under the tabs on the right
Choose the correct package, then select the start date (beginning or mid-month) and click “I agree with the above terms”
Check out and enter your payment by credit card
Sit back and think “Winning. Everyday.”

If you want to enter checking account info for ACH monthly withdrawals or if you have any other questions or problems setting up this part, please set up your profile with personal info and let us know which option you want and we can help you set up the rest.

There are lots of cool things we can do with this program so we need all our members in there as we will get better at using the many features of the software for things like events, T Shirts, CF Kids, appointment scheduling, etc.

Notes:

From the land of the truly bizarre; human breast milk ice cream. Technically it’s free range right?

Ice-cream maker to make human breast milk treat – The Globe and Mail

Happy Birthday today to Rob! Here’s a shot from today’s training for the Games Open. (Don’t worry he will get a birthday WOD soon):

Some of the team tackling “Twins”:

"Death by Burpee"

With a continuously running clock perform 1 burpee the first minute, 2 burpees the second minute, 3 burpees the third minute, and so on, continuing to add 1 each minute until you cannot complete the required number of reps in the given minute.

Score total rounds and reps in the last round completed.

Results

View this photo

Read: “It’s Just Exercise (Part II)” by Melissa Urban of Whole9

Today’s “Great Day Summary” is presented in captions and photos:

The Burpee King Matt who did so many damn burpees it had to be witnessed:

and the Burpee Queen Rona (who is sharing the title with Moe as it was a virtual tie since she did an extra 2 burpees in a previous round when she lost count):

What is virtual shoveling? Well it was in the warm-up today (nice one Mark!) and Hailly provides a demo:

Matt was so on fire tonight he actually worked in trick burpees during the WOD like this “360 Burpee”:

Rona showing off why she crushed this WOD and PR’d today! It was her never quit attitude!

We were visited today by Tom Ashby who is a friend and coach from CrossFit Lakewood, CO. It was awesome to have him come see the box, meet Michelle, Ash and our peeps and all workout together:

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner! (Paleo of course)

Coaches vs. “Mary”

Choose between the following AMRAP’s:

“Pistol Whipped”

AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) for 20 Minutes:

5 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#/14#)
10 Pistols (Alternating)
15 Double-Unders

or “Mary”

AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) for 20 Minutes:

5 Handstand Push-ups
10 Pistols (Alternating)
15 Pull-ups

Results

View this photo
View this photo

Matt showing a proper cool-down after crushing “Mary”:

Quote of the Day: “Paleo is a logical framework applied to modern humans, not a historical reenactment.” Andrew Badenoch

Here is the official winner and runner-up for the 6 week “Stop the Slop Nutrition Challenge”:

(The “Jackie” Performance results were announced yesterday)

Nutrition Challenge Winner is Dustin Rogers
- Dustin finished the Nutrition Challenge with the highest % weight loss overall; with a 6.7% improvement (13 pounds lost)
- Dustin also improved his RX Jackie by 4.7% while simultaneously shrinking to the point that his wife Lindsay called him “Man-orexic”

- Dustin wins:
  - $200 in cash money
  - 1 Month Unlimited Free to SnoRidge aka “The House of Awesome”
  - 1 Year CrossFit Journal Subscription

Nutrition Challenge Runner-up is Jenn Lilly
- Jenn finished the Nutrition Challenge with the second highest % weight loss overall; with a 6.5% improvement (9.7 pounds lost)
- Jenn’s food choices overall were really good and it showed as she is a lean mean fighting machine
- She also improved her Jackie by 22.2%. (I am kind of scared of her now)

- Jenn wins:
  - $50 in cash
  - 1 Bottle of Barlean’s Fish Oil Ultra EPA-DHA
  - lululemon athletica water bottle

CONGRATS, chest bumps, and caveman high fives to Dustin and Jenn for the top two spots and to everyone who participated in the Nutrition Challenge!

The Nutrition Challenge this year was longer (6 weeks) than our previous one. This was meant to ensure those who stuck with a Paleo diet could see or feel results, make longer lasting nutrition changes, and understand the full effects of both staying “on” and falling “off” the wagon. Several of you did just that. The race for this challenge was very close. We are proud of everyone for starting, trying and sticking with it. If you didn’t finish for whatever reason, don’t be discouraged! Read your Nutrition guides, make a decision to start eating clean and muster that self discipline to truly try it for at least 30 days. It’s never too late to try to be more healthy. If I believed that I still wouldn’t passionately try to convince my parents that things like low fat, soy, whole grains, and other processed garbage is not good for them.

For those who didn’t participate, when you decide you are ready to get more information and insight into nutrition and the paleo diet, ask us about purchasing our complete Whole9/SnoRidge CrossFit Nutrition Guide which lays it all out for you.

Some basic stats:

94 lbs. lost total!
25 people started the “Stop the Slop Challenge”
17 of you finished it and weighed in to seal the deal
Many of you have elected to maintain a Paleo diet after the challenge
11 Men completed it vs. 6 Women (Surprising to me since more women started than men)
10 people lost greater than 5.5 lbs

Notes:

Today’s WOD was a choice between two pistol loving AMRAP’s. Either the CrossFit.com benchmark WOD “Mary” or just a brutal triplet in “Pistol Whipped”, neither is easy. One piece of coaching from me: If you finished the WOD today (or really any day) and need to immediately do an unplanned second WOD, then you likely scaled incorrectly or simply did not push as hard as you could have. Remember that this is all training. Training means working on your weaknesses. Sometimes those weaknesses mean you need to scale to allow yourself to get enough work done to build strength, technique, form, consistency, or work capacity.

Josh inverted while Michelle is locked and loaded:

Read: “It’s Just Exercise (Part I)” by Melissa Urban of Whole9 – Part II coming tomorrow

Got wide feet? Like New Balance? Try these barefoot style shoes for running and CrossFit: NB Minimus Preview

"Jackie" Performance Challenge Results are in!

Strength WOD:

Deadlift
3/3/3/3/3

Checkout WOD:

4 Rounds for Time:

5 Deadlifts (225#/155#)
10 Knees-to-elbows
15 Ring Dips

Results

View this photo
View this photo

Checkout WOD Action:

We can finally publish the winners and runners-up for the “Stop the Slop Jackie Performance Challenge”

The Nutrition Challenge results will be announced tomorrow!

Performance Challenge Winner is Matt Patterson
- Matt finished the Jackie Challenge with the highest % time improved overall; with an insane overall 49.4% improvement!
- His first bout with Jackie did not go well and he finished at 12 plus minutes as RX’d. It was a struggle as Matt kind of “crashed and burned” after the row. His rematch 6 weeks later saw him complete it at a blistering time of 6:37! The improvement was the result of several factors: 1) Improved nutrition (Matt completed the 6 week Paleo Challenge) 2) Improved kipping pull-ups 3) Better strategy. Matt paced better to avoid the crash he suffered the first time. 4) Overall improved fitness. Matt has had several PR’s over the past 6 weeks and it shows.

- Matt wins:
  - RX Jump Rope of his choice
  - 1 Year CrossFit Journal Subscription

Performance Challenge Runner-up is Nadia Schmieder
- Nadia finished the Jackie Challenge with the second highest % time improved overall; with an overall 26.6% improvement!
- The race for second place was very tight with 4 people bunched up right behind Nadia by a matter of a few % points
- Nadia improved by 4:59 using the exact same weight and bands each time. Six weeks of paleo and CrossFit 3-4 times per week on average paved the way for such a huge improvement. On top of that she surprised herself tonight by hitting a 3RM on her deadlift at 173#! This was her previous 1 rep max back in December. Solid performance!

- Nadia wins:
  - 1 Bottle of Barlean’s Fish Oil Ultra EPA-DHA
  - lululemon athletica water bottle

CONGRATS to Matt and Nadia and to everyone who participated in the Jackie Performance Challenge!

Notes:

Attention Team Squatch competitors: Update on the upcoming 2011 CF Games Open (AKA “The Event Formerly Known as Sectionals”) below. We are only 3 weeks away from “GO TIME”!

CrossFit Games Open: The New Site – video [wmv] [mov]

View from The Squatch Cave:

CrossFit Gymnastics Trainer Course Certification is coming!

We are stoked to announce we are working to host this awesome 2 day cert with Jeff Tucker and Jeannie Bassi here at our box in late May or June. Spots will fill up fast so if this interests you then let us know so you can register before we post it to the larger community. Cost for this cert is $595 and registration will be via CrossFit.com once it is listed.

Course Description: “This course will be open to anyone and is a “road show” course led by Jeff Tucker and his staff. This is a great two-day fundamental session in the gymnastics skills you need to become a better, more well-rounded athlete and CrossFitter.

Jeff R. Tucker – or “Tucker” to those who know him – is the CEO and founder of Global Sports Xtreme (GSX) in Ft Worth, Texas and he has a passion for teaching gymnastics. He and his staff will delve into basic and intermediate gymnastic forms in a lecture setting followed by practical application. Skills will be repeated until the student has satisfactory understanding of how to learn, spot and teach such methods safely. You will also be taught how to scale the movements until they become second nature. You don’t merely watch, or half-heartedly attempt such moves, you LEARN them, and through repeated progression and persistence you gain great rewards.

Tucker’s goal in this course is to aid CrossFitters in using gymnastics for strength development, core control, and WOD progressions. Result: the CrossFit community will become more engaged in using one of the foundational blocks for CrossFit workouts – Gymnastics.

You will be taught a wide variety of movements and techniques, including these and others:

Paralette work: handstands, L–sit, stretching, core control, handstand push ups, scalability of basic and intermediate movements, spotting, ROM/EROM training.
Rings: core training exercises, support work, proper hand placement, L-sits, iron cross progressions, dislocates, presses, muscle ups and muscle up drills, self spotting techniques, kips, handstands on rings, and conditioning.
Bar variations: handstands on rings back levers, skin the cat, L-sit pull up variations, stretching, kipping swing, spotting techniques, bar muscle ups, scalability of all moves.
Handstands : HSPU’s, HS forward rolls, balance work, press to HS, L-sit to handstand, how to spot and scale this foundational part of the elements for WOD’s and newbies. hand placement, core control, strength development Planche – progressions on floor, rings and paralettes.

We will have an in depth lecture and video presentation throughout the two days with detailed information and discussion on gymnastic elements and the best application for such drills in CrossFit boxes and the community at large.

What do you need to bring? Athletic attire and an adventurous attitude! We look forward to teaching all comers and all skill levels how these foundational gymnastic elements will increase your strength, your flexibility, and understanding on how gymnastics programing is part of Greg Glassman’s vision.”

"The Slop is Stopped"! (Plus Jackie Pt. Deux)

“Jackie”:

For Time:

1000m Row
50 Thrusters (45#/33#)
30 Pull-ups

Results

View this photo

Compare to Previous Results

Quote of the Day: “The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.” ~ Thomas Edison

Today officially ended the 6 week “Stop the Slop” Nutrition and Performance Challenge. While there are still a couple of people who need to make up “Jackie” on Monday, the majority of you who saw it through finished it today with many PR’s achieved. Today Pat also competed in a local CF Throwdown and placed in the Top 10 of the Men’s “Elite” Division out of 44 athletes. (More on that tomorrow after official results are published). What a great day!

For those who didn’t weigh in today please remember to weigh-in on Monday or Tuesday at the latest so we can finalize the winners of the nutrition challenge. So far we have over 75 lbs. lost collectively (with several still to weigh-in)! We also have a few who have reported they no longer have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, or now have normal blood glucose levels. Chest bumps to all of you for putting in the effort to see it through. After the weigh-in’s and WOD make-ups are done we will crown the winners and get them their prizes.

Most importantly take some time to reflect on your performance over the past six weeks:

Did you improve in performance or achieve PR’s?
Did you realize you can go faster and harder in a WOD before hitting that “suck” point?
Did you lose weight OR change body composition (i.e. gain lean muscle mass and lose body-fat)?
Make lasting changes in your nutrition for you or your family that are truly healthy?
Learn more about what real food vs. crap food do to your health, body and skin?
Did you focus on using better movement and form in your WOD’s that could not be called “slop”?

It is your coaches hopes that you will all continue to make this a lifestyle and not a “diet”. While we all deserve a cheat meal or treat, don’t abandon everything and treat this as just another diet. Fad diets are honestly part of the problem (in my opinion). LIfestyle changes are habits that become lifelong and sustainable. Whether it’s Adkins, South Beach, or some sort of “points” and “playing cards” type of diet you cannot temporarily practice eating a certain way and hope to be successful if you only plan to end it as soon as possible. Adopting sound principles for what you put into your body that have a proven track record at making someone leaner, stronger, less sick, and healthier is hard to argue. That is what eating “Paleo” has proven to Michelle and I (and Moe, Mark and Jeremy) over and over again firsthand. The evidence is there to be seen and found if you look for it and give it a chance. No shortcuts, cheats or binges while your body adjusts. Make sound choices based on quality and be consistent. Once you do you will likely “get it”. Some of what you used to view as food will be exposed for the toxic, artificial, chemical stuff that is everywhere and killing us slowly. You will feel better, look better and all around perform better. Not just in a workout, but in life. Which is what it’s all about anyway, right?