Hudson Valley Crossfit

Skinny Fat

Skinny fat: The superficial skinny.  It is not a result of hard work and eating right.  You see them at the globo gyms walking on their treadmills, going through"the circuit", and ordering their "healthy" whole grains and pastas.

Which brings us to a bit on nutrition.  Do you know what you eat throughout the day?  Do you know how much you eat throughout the day?  Are you getting enough fat, protein and carbs?  Most likely, as you are an American, you are getting plenty of carbs.  But are you getting them from the right sources.  You should be getting most of your carbs from vegetables and some from fruit.  Now I know that I fail at this and get most of my carbs from fruit.  It is especially hard during the winter, with the local farms not producing for the snowy months.

How about your protein?  Most people would just think that meat is meat.  However, if you are getting your meat from grain feed animals, you are not getting the protein you should be eating.  You should be loooking for pasture raised or grass fed, grass finished.  This will ensure that you are getting the proper protein and fats from the meat you are eating.

The most important thing you need to ask yourself is are you getting enough fat?  As a CrossFitter you should be eatting at least 12-15 grams of fat with each meal, and thats measured out fat!  With each meal, I make sure I measure out about 24-40 almonds (or comprobale source of fat).  This ensures that I am getting the minimum amount of fat that should be in my diet.  The meats we are eating will increase that number a little as well.  The next important thing on fat is what kind of fat is being consumed.  Most of us eat way to much Omega-6 fat.  Most of our nuts and meat contains Omega-6 fat.  This is where the fish oil pills come in.  They provide Omega-3 fats.  However, they are not enough.  This is why we need to eat the proper meats.  Grain fed animals produce Omega-6 fats, while pasture raised or grass fed animals produce Omega-3 fats.

So, what are you eating?  Are you getting maximal performance, or is your diet prohibiting that? Do you keep a food journal, or have you?  If you haven't, I suggest you do it for at least a week.  This will help you figure out exactly what you are eating and how much you are eating.  When you keep that journal, check out the site www.fitday.com. It is a nice little site that will measure up all your fat, protein, carbs, vitamins and minerals.  Give it a try!

"Grindy"

10 Clean&Jerks @ 135/95

5rounds of:

5 pullups

10 pushups

15 squats

10 Clean&Jerks @ 135/95

5rounds of:

5 pullups

10 pushups

15 squats

10 Clean&Jerks @ 135/95

in case you couldn't figure it out.. this is a mashup of Grace (30 C&J @ 135/95) and CIndy (AMRAP 20 Minutes, 5pull, 10push,15squats).  3-2-1-GO!

Heavy Lifting: Clean 3x3

WOD:

15 - Deadlift

50 - Pull ups

12 - Deadlift

40 - Pull ups

9 - Deadlift

30 - Pull ups

6 - Deadlift

20 - Pull ups

3 - Deadlift

10 - Pull ups

Schedule Change

Tomorrow I start my temp job.  Since my hours there go from 7:00am - 3:30pm I will not be able to hold 7:00am and 8:00am classes for now.   Greg can return as the morning trainer, but he has to be out of the gym by 8am to get to work.  Plus, he will be away for over 2 weeks in February.  If possible, we would like everyone to come to the afternoon classes temporarily.  Classes will be held at 4:30pm, 5:30pm and 6:30pm.  We can discuss with you what hours will work best for your schedule and be as accommodating as possible.  We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope scheduling goes smoothly for everyone.

Heavy Lifting - Deadlift 3x10

WOD: AMRAP 8 min

7 SDHP

7 Push Ups

Alternate WOD:

5 Rounds

500m row

7 - 135# Thrusters (scale weight as needed)   

Flexibility, Balance, Breathing and…Yoga? Part 3

The final installment on yoga discussion is now upon us. We finish off with Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance and Agility. 

Power – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.

Speed – The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.

    Move large loads, many times, quickly.  (The equation is on the board.)  We know how power is a major part of programming CrossFit workouts, and many of our times are slowed because of our range of motion.  In order to get into that full squat (getting that butt below parallel) we slow up at the bottom, but yoga will increase your flexibility so range of motion becomes easier and time is not lost.  Going back to endurance, your breathing will be better controlled so your speed will be maintainable.  Often we start out the WOD strong and fast but start sucking wind and out speed plummets,  work hard (and fast), breath slow!

Coordination – The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.

Agility – The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.

Balance – The ability to control the placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base.

    All three build upon one another.  You need to have the coordination to perform a snatch, clean, thruster or butterfly pull up.  In order to do them more than once and quickly, you need to increase your agility, and they all require you to have balance.  These three physical skills can all come down to one statement; have control of your body.  We already talked about two primary benefits to including some yoga and those were controlling your breathing and increase your flexibility.  The final one is improved balance.  We all have the ability to do a squat, even one with added weight, yet most of us struggle when it comes to performing a pistol.  It is not so much the strength that is missing, but the balance and coordination.  To do more than one pistol will require agility.  However, if you are lacking in these skills (and lacking in flexibility) the movements we are working on will be more difficult.  The balance that is used in yoga will directly impact your balance in all the movements we do in CrossFit and any movements you do in life.

Accuracy – The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

    Finally we come to the last physical skill.  Accuracy could have been clumped in with the previous three as it’s a complete control of your body.  It is the coordination to perform the movement, agility to repeat it and the balance to hold them all together to hit the mark each time, every time.  If the bar gets out in front of you on a snatch, you are not going to get under it.  If you do not hit the wall on wallball, a lot of energy is lost catching it.  Many movements require accuracy, some movements more than others, so by increasing our balance, agility and coordination, we will begin to increase our accuracy.  This in turn will allow us to be more efficient in our movements, which means less energy is used on wasted movements and missed reps.  Controlling our breathing will be easier and our stamina will not be taxed as much, allowing us to maintain speed for a longer duration thus increasing our power and our improving our Met Cons.

So while many people will criticize yoga for numerous reasons, we need to use the CrossFit mentality and find what works and incorporate it into our daily, weekly or monthly routines.  Since yoga does work for improving our breathing, flexibility and balance, we should be using it for just that.  While none of the trainers have the knowledge nor training for instructing yoga, many of us know someone that does.  I am working on getting a couple friends that instruct yoga to the gym so they can not only get into the WODs, but to also run a few yoga classes.  If you know anyone that would be interested in trying out CrossFit and are able to instruct yoga classes bring them by.

 

There is a possbility that we will be able to have a yoga class on Thursdays starting soon.  As this is when most people take a rest day, I thought this would be the best time to at least introduce the classes.  And now onto the WOD.

Heavy Lifting: Front Squats 5x1

For those that did not come yesterday, we have yesterday's WOD.

3 rounds

500m row

21 KB Swings

12 Pull ups

For those that did yesterday's WOD

At the beginning of every minute perform 5 burpees, for the rest of the minute perform as many thrusters as you can during that minute. At the beginning of the next minute perform 5 burpees and then max rep thrusters and so on until you reach 100 total thrusters.

Today we continue the talk on how yoga can help us as CrossFitters.  We saw yesterday how yoga could improve our cardiovasular/respiratory Endurance while today we will look at Stamina, Strength and Flexibility.

Stamina – The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy. 

    Simply put, can your muscles sustain large loads, over long distances quickly?  You may have the strength to deadlift 400#, but can you pick up 165# thirty-six times while also rowing 1500m and jumping on a 20” box 63 times (Christine)?  We get this practice in numerous Met Cons and in the multiple rep heavy lifting, yoga can help here as well.  Holding positions can be quite strenuous on your muscles and exhaust your stamina.  Doing bodyweight holds will force your muscles to work for extended periods of time just to prevent you from falling on your face. 

 

Strength – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.

Flexibility – The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.

    In other words, strength is the ability to throw around heavy weights while flexibility is the ability to go through the full range of motion.  How is it possible that yoga could help with lifting heavy things?  Ask Greg, who went to a yoga class last Sunday and got a 10# PR on his Deadlift later that day, which he has been at a plateau with for some time now.  I, myself, went to a yoga class on Sunday as well and then got a 10# PR on my Deadlift and a 5# PR on my Press on Monday.  We can see based on these examples yoga has strength benefits.  The reason for this is because it’s derived from a different physical skill, flexibility.  That is why I combined strength and flexibility instead of talking about them separately.

    We all know that yoga is renowned for its ability to improve your flexibility, but what can flexibility do to help our other physical skills.  I am probably not alone when I say that I don’t possess extreme flexibility of which yoga practitioners are stereotyped for.  However, many of us have a butt wink on our squats; our Olympic lifting landings are too wide, usually because our squat stance is too wide; our elbows don’t get up easily on front squats or thrusters; our elbows don’t go down on presses; we tape our wrists up when we putt weight overhead all because we are not flexible.  I say it often enough that we are missing flexibility for one move or another, but it now seems to have become an excuse instead of something we work on.  By increasing flexibility, we will improve full range of motion, which means an easier time lifting heavy weights.  Getting your stance narrower on the squats, our base of power is now directly beneath us instead of spread out with the wide stance and lost to ankles and knees folding in.  A narrower stance on Olympic lifts means our landings are faster, allowing use to drop under the bar quicker, which translates to heavier lifts.  Also, most failures on front squats are from our elbows falling down and our back curving.  Getting better shoulder flexibility means elbows staying up.

    An increase in our flexibility will have a direct impact on our strength, however, becoming over flexible will cause a decrease in your ability to lift heavy weights, just as an increase in muscle mass will decrease range of motion.  As with everything, there must be a balance. 

As with yesterday, please post question or general comments for discussion.  Tomorrow I will finish off with Power, Speed, Agility, Accuracy, Coordination and Balance.

Now onto today's WOD.

Heavy Lifting - Jerk 5x1 (Yes, that means split jerk)

WOD: 3 Rounds

500m Row

21 KB Swings

12 Pull Ups

Flexibility, Balance, Breathing and…Yoga? Part 1

Over the next couple days I will be discussing some of the pros of yoga.  As we all know, yoga practitioners are known for their flexibility and balance, but how can it help the average, or even above average CrossFitter? 

CrossFit defines fitness with three standards; the Ten General Physical Skills of Fitness, the Hopper and the Metabolic Pathways.  Each day we experience the Hopper. The morning classes do not find out the workout until they get there or they check the website.  Thus every day we are treated to another surprise WOD from the CrossFit bank of constantly varied functional movements.  We always hit the different metabolic pathways with either the heavy lifting or the daily WOD  (refer to the graph on the board in the lifting area for the pathways).  Now, let’s look at the Ten General Physical Skills…

 

1.   Cardiovascular/respiratory Endurance

2.   Stamina

3.   Strength

4.   Flexibility

5.   Power

6.   Speed

7.   Coordination

8.   Agility

9.   Balance

10.  Accuracy

 

For the most part we hit each one of these every day.  However, some are a bit neglected.  The neglected are called upon only when needed and often fail us.  Two of the most commonly neglected physical skills are flexibility and balance.  Here I will discuss why we need flexibility and balance, not only for our general fitness, but how they will help your other 8 physical skills.  Also I will discuss how yoga will help with each of these general physical skills.

 

I will use the definitions from the October 2002 CrossFit Journal to provide a better explanation and understanding.

 

Cardiovascular/Respiratory – The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.

    When programming a Met Con, I often look to hit this skill, and as all of you know, we usually hit it well.  However, we need to take a further look into this.  Greg is constantly saying, “Work Hard, Breath Slow,” instead of panting and wheezing through each WOD.  Being able to control your breathing will increase your ability to gather oxygen.  Right away we see one benefit of yoga; one of the things you will experience in a yoga class will be steady, controlled breathing.  For any of you that have not participated in a yoga class probably think, “Yoga is low intensity, how will that breathing help with my ability to breath during Fran?”  In different positions it becomes very difficult to breathe while holding proper form.  By practicing your breathing, it will become second nature to control your breathing during Fran as opposed to being hindered by it.

Tomorrow, I will continue on the benefits of yoga.  Please comment on the post with questions or insights.  And now for the daily heavy lifting and WOD.

Heavy Lifting - Snatch 5x1

WOD -  3 Rounds

   10 - Max Distance Broad Jumps

   20 - Kettlebell Swings

   30 - Push Ups

"Fight Gone Bad!"

Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

 

Here we have a tasty recipe for Beef and Brocolli for those of you craving a fast food Chinese food minus the the bad stuff.

Beef and Broccoli

Ingredients

1lb steak, sliced thin

1lb broccoli florets

1 small can of water chestnuts

2tbs coconut oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1tsp salt

Pepper to taste

For marinade:

3tbs vinegar

1tbs lemon peel

For the sauce:

3tbs oyster sauce

1tsp ginger

1/3 cup chicken broth (or water and 1tsp salt)

1tsp flour* (nut, coconut, pureed vegetables) *may omit

Combine marinade ingredients and beef slices in a zip lock bag for 10+ minutes.  In a small bowl mix together sauce ingredients, set aside.  In medium saucepan bring water and salt to boil.  Add broccoli.  Let cook for 2 minutes (do not let overcook), drain.  Heat large skillet on medium/high heat, add coconut oil.  Place steak slices in a single layer into the pan, cook 1 minute.  Flip steak and add garlic, let cook 30 seconds.  Add broccoli, water chestnuts, and sauce, stir to distribute sauce evenly.  When sauce begins to bubble add “flour”.  Stir with wooden spoon to distribute thickening agent.  Add pepper to taste.

Heavy Lifting - Deadlift 5x1

WOD - 5 rounds

  3 - Squat Cleans

  6 - KB Swings

  9 - Wallball

We would like to remind everyone that Friday night (1/15) we will be closed.  We will still be open Friday morning.