Happy Birthday Mercy!!!

Similar to yesterday, today’s post is inspired by Big Jon, who offered up a topic when he saw me muddling through websites Tuesday night prepping for Wednesday’s post.  During your evening and weekend veg time in front of the television, instead of mindlessly suffering through the repetitive, somewhat annoying, and sometimes mildly inappropriate commericals, why don’t do something productive for yourself like some stretching.  Leave it to the father of 2 year old triplets to find ways to be more efficient with time, but if you think about it Jon’s definitely on to something.  Commercial breaks are roughly what, 45, 60, 90 seconds, perhaps even longer depending on the network you’re watching?  That sounds like the perfect amount of time needed to get some extra stretching and soft tissue work time in that you’re probably shrugging off otherwise.  Need ideas?  Funny you should ask, but if you haven’t heard us mention mobilitywod.com in about 50+ posts we’ve written to date, I’ll provide some suggestions straight from Kelly Starrett himself.

~PR Saturday~

Monday’s workout saw us Back Squatting heavy followed by a vicious variation of “Jackie” doing the 1Km Row, 50 Thrusters, and instead of the pullups we finished with 10 Bear Crawls.

• Tyler PR’d his 1Km Row with an impressive 3:28

On Tuesday we performed weighted pullups up to our heaviest single rep for the day.  After we did a reverse ladder workout of running, kettlebell swings, and toes to bar.  Lots of pullup PRs from Tuesday highlighted by:

• Paul K. got his first strict pullup
• Amanda and Avelyne pulled their bodyweight+25# and BW+27.5 resepctively
• Tom D. did his pullup with BW+70#
• Josh was able to pull his weight+80#
• Finally the best pulls of the day go to James and Tyler who both pulled their BW+90#!

Wednesday’s workout had us Bench Press heavy then an AMRAP 7 of Ring Dips, Overhead Squats, and Double Unders.

• Holley scored a new Bench Press 1RM by getting 125#!

Thursday’s skill day yielded several PRs and firsts highlighted by:

• MJ’s Back Squat PR of 220# x 5reps
• Laura’s first double under
• Cody’s first muscle up
• Mike S.’s first kipping toes to bar

On Friday we Deadlifted then the met-con included wallball shots, power cleans, and burpees.

• Mark (aka M^2) Deadlifted 340# x 3 reps
• Bryant continued his linear progression by lifting 325# x 5reps in his Deadlift
• Big Jon pulled 440# for an impressive 5reps!

Finally, today’s workout is a CrossFit benchmark workout called “Nicole” consisting of running and pullups.  Try to set PRs in 400m splits, number of consecutive pullups, or a new “Nicole” PR on rounds or reps.

WOD 6.16.12

“Nicole”
AMRAP 20
Run 400m
Max Rep Pullups
*Score Rounds & Reps*

Yesterday, after numerous comments about the workout being a “grip killer”, I thought some might appreciate ideas on recovery techniques for your wrists, forearms, and elbows other than stretching. Don’t get me wrong, stretching has its place and stretching your forearms is an easy one to check off. I often use the steering wheel at stop lights to assist in my forearm and wrist mobility, especially after grip taxing workouts like yesterday’s. Another option is to simply use your favorite internet search engine to search for forearm stretch ideas. I like videos and came across this one from our friends at Paradiso CrossFit just a short drive north in Marina Del Rey.

My quest for knowledge on how to unglue overworked forearms then brought me to mobility Sensei Kelly Starrett’s mobilitywod.com website.  He posted some ideas in video below to help with the recovery of overworked forearms.

For those interested in the learning more about the Armaid that he discusses in the video visit their site here.  Just another tool for the mobility warrior to consider.  I’ve also had success using the arm rest of my office chair when I lacked a lacrosse ball.  I’ve also found that racquetballs works very well as well on the smaller muscles of your forearms.  Be diligent with your recovery and if you get to class early use the time to your advantage by trying some of the forearm mobility drills.

WOD 6.13.12

Bench Press 3×5/Wendler

AMRAP 7

• 6 Ring Dips
• 8 Overhead Squats
• 36 Double Unders

We have all seen bear crawls show up in warm ups and sometimes in workouts (more often if you wander into one of Marcus’s classes). If anyone played competitive sports growing up, they may have experienced bear crawls before. So why is this such a popular exercise?

1. It is great for warm ups because it stretches your hamstrings and activates your shoulders, core and legs.

2. It can be used as and exercise to improve strength, balance, endurance, agility and explosiveness.

3. It can be used as an active recovery exercise because like the prowler, it does not make you sore the next day.

Here are some pointers forhood bear crawl form:

1. Keep you back  as flat as possible

2. Keep your hips lower (exception: straight legged bear crawls)

3.Evenly distribute your weight on all four limbs and make the movement as smooth as possible (move like a ninja) to minimize impact and make the movement more efficient

Now in warm ups, bear crawl may not seem too challenging, but if you have ever done bear crawls in a workout or at football practice, you know just how challenging they can be.  However, if you still feel they aren’t challenging enough for you, like most movements, there are ways you can make them more challenging for yourself.

1. You can do them backwards. This will challenge your coordination and work your shoulders a little more.

2. You can do them up and down a hill.

3. You can do the 3-legged bear crawl and do them while holding one leg in the air.

4. You can do them while pulling weight on a sled.

5. You can do them using a ladder to further improve your agility, coordination, speed and explosiveness. Check out this youtube video to see demos of additional drills.

Moral of the story, if you’re looking for an active recovery day activity to do at home or in the park, try bearcrawls and mix up the way you do the movement. Feel free to post to comments any bear crawl experiences you have had or any variations you have tried out or seen in the past.

REST DAY 06-10-12

A side project that’s been slow in its development is the Intrepid Athlete Store. In its early stages we simply sold shirts, but as our office becomes more organized I’m looking to expand our selection of items to other relevant areas to best suit our community’s needs and wants.  Keep in mind that pricing will depend based on the amount ordered, so the more interest there is the lower the prices will be.  I’ll share what I’m planning on stocking up on, but I’m also open to suggestions for other items so post ideas to comments or share your ideas with us in class:

Apparel

• Multiple variations of gym shirts (I know I’ve been procrastinating on these for a while now)
• Suggestions for long sleeved dri-fit shirt, sweatpants, hoodies, and beanies in the colder months

Equipment

I’m open to the idea of having some extra equipment on hand for those interested in stocking up their home/garage gym, but only if there’s enough interest.  Ideas include:

• Bumper Plates
• Bars
• Collars
• Kettlebells
• Slam Balls
• Medicine Balls
• Rings
• Squat Stands
• Pullup Bars

Mobility & Recovery

• Foam rollers
• Lacrosse balls
• Bands
• Theracanes
• Knobbles
• Sticks
• Hot Packs
• Ped Eggs
• Ice Cups & Cold Packs (no charge)

Nutrition & Supplements

• Steve’s Original Paleo Kits
• Varieties of Stronger, Faster, Healthier Fish Oil
• Varieties of SFH Grass Fed Whey Protein Powder
• Egg Protein Powder
• Coconut Water
• Brian’s Bowls’ Meals

Educational Resources

I’m thinking of keeping copies of valuable books and other resources on hand for purchase or possibly to check out library-style.  I’ll keep everyone posted on this part of the store as it develops further.

Speaking of Brian’s Bowls, they will be visiting Intrepid tonight during the 5, 6, and 7pm classes here in the Intrepid parking lot.  They’re offering samples and even bringing frozen meals for purchase if anyone is looking for a healthy and convenient meal option!  Check Ruth’s post from this past Friday to learn more about Brian’s Bowls and what they offer.  These are great to keep on stand-by for those nights where cooking simply isn’t going to happen.  Have a clean option on hand to avoid resorting to fast food or other poor food choices.

WOD 5.23.12

Back Squat 3×5

6 40yd Prowler pushes
Rest 90sec-2mins b/n pushes

Handstand Skillwork

Photo courtesy of Bandha Yoga

Our backs, and specifically the psoas, is a topic that the trainers have posted about many times. They’ve described how it’s used in our body, how we can lessen the tightness with good posture and mobility tips to keep it from tightening up on us.

At one point last year, I had my psoas tighten up on me pretty badly and it took a good amount of time to get it back in order. Since that has happened I spend a lot more time on the stretches that our trainers have posted about or shown us in class for stretching our backs, glutes, hips and hamstrings. Even so, on days when I spend a lot of time at my desk or when I’m working out or lifting with poor glute activation, I notice some tightness in my psoas. Because of this, I’m constantly looking for new ways to take care of my back.

This weekend I noticed some tightness in my psoas, so I did some research and came across a yoga page about awakening the psoas. They awaken the muscle by using a technique called isometric contraction which isolates and therefore “awakens” the dormant muscle. Here’s how they describe how it works:

“The Psoas Awakening Series sequentially activates different parts of the psoas—incrementally and synergistically. When the brain sees a conscious combination of actions like this, it will then automatically use the psoas in unrelated actions.”

If you’re interested in trying out the movements, check out the site here. You’ll recognize many of the movements because they are a part of the mobility work we do in class. Be careful with some of the movements, they’re not simple, so don’t get deeper into a position than you should and don’t do a movement if it hurts in a bad way. Today was my first time trying it, so I’m going to keep it up at least once a week and see if I notice a change. If any of you have found movements that you do consistently that you like to use for improving mobility in that region, please post to comments.

REST DAY 05.20.12

Whole9 just ran an article that I think you should take the time to read today. While I will quote some segments in this post, you really owe it to your betterment as an athlete to go check it out. Many of you choose to skip the skills day since “it’s not hard enough” and chalk it up as a rest day. However, could you be doing better? Whole9 defines rest as “the absence of effort or movement—the absence of exertion”, while recovery is a “restorative process”.

Rest vs. Recovery

These two words, “rest” and “recovery,” have distinctly different meanings when applied to health, fitness or athletic contexts. Recovery can encompass many different behaviors and strategies, but it is fundamentally different than just resting.

Everyone in the gym is subjecting themselves to a level of stress (we call these workouts) in addition to other stressors they have in their day-to-day life. How much is too much? Well Whole9 gives a few examples:

A “stressor” isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but the application of that stressor in that dose in a context already saturated with a high stress load may be detrimental to your health.* If you’re a parent with an infant (and thus some degree of sleep deprivation/disturbance), a busy job, and some financial stress, do you think the net effect of getting out of bed at 5:00 AM five days a week to do high-intensity exercise is positive? Likely not. (If we just described your life, please… just stay in bed.)

*This is one of the reasons why we rarely recommend intermittent fasting to our consulting clients. Unsurprisingly, most of them are on the “too much” side of the stress scale, rating their daily stress at an average of 8 out of 10. These folks don’t have any “reserve” left to offset an additional stressor, which means adding IF on to their current health equation would do them more harm than good. IF may be a perfectly appropriate tool for other folks with different contexts, but it’s not for everyone.

Personally, I didn’t recommend IF much to people in the past because so many struggled to get the basics of paleo down. In my opinion, if a person can’t improve and control their food quality in the absence of weighing-and-measuring, putting them on a restrictive feeding schedule is likely to torpedo their health, quickly. Whole9′s point of it being an added stress is a worthwhile item to consider.

Thankfully, Whole9 also gives us some warning signs to look for if we might be running on empty. I can personally relate to some and know I’ve had members come to me mentioning other items from this list:

Are you Under-Recovered? Here are a few things to look for:

1. You used to be excited about going to the gym – not so much anymore.
2. Your performance (or lack thereof) is seriously stressing you out , and a poor workout ruins your day.
3. You’ve got chronic muscle soreness after every workout, and/or that lingering “shoulder thing” that just won’t seem to heal.
4. Your sleep pattern has become irregular.
5. Even though you’re in bed for enough hours, you never feel well-rested in the morning.
6. You need a Monster drink or three espressos to get fired up for your training sessions.
7. You crave carbohydrates (sugar!) more than you used to.
8. You’re getting sick a lot, or just can’t seem to kick that cold you picked up.
9. You’re training hard and “eating right” but that little belly just isn’t going away.
10. You’re actually gaining fat, instead of losing it.

Any of this resonate with you?

Again, I don’t want to (fully) plagiarize the good work of Dallas and Melissa over at Whole9, so I purposely am going to skip their recommended “fixes” for what ails you. For that, you’ll have to take a peek at their full article.  (Hint: it’s not just “rest”.) Please post to comments if you think you may need to make some changes. What will YOU be doing with your Thursdays (or Sundays, for that matter)?

WOD 05.17.12

Skills Day

Shin splints can be a nagging injury and although Ruth has posted on it before, I’d like to revisit the topic since some of you are currently recovering from shin splint issues. According to Vonda Wright, M.D. in her article 7 tips to Beat Shin Splints, there are 3 major culprits in the onset of shin splints(her article is geared towards runners, but you’ll get the gist):

1.   Too much medial foot pressure (ie: poor biomechanics): with each heel strike onto the central part of your heel, too much pressure is transferred towards your arch and medial column of your forefoot.  If you are naturally “knock kneed” this is even worse.  All this leads to altered internal rotation of the tibia and overwork/pressure on the front of your leg and therefore pain.
2.   Too little lower leg strength (ie: you’re weak): Runners pay too little attention to the strength of the muscles in their lower legs!  A weak posterior tibialis (the muscle responsible for supporting the medial column of your foot) leads to early fatigue and over pronation.  Anterior tibialis and gastroc weakness also contribute to early fatigue and worse mechanics.
3.   Too much activity, too soon, with too much intensity

After analyzing the typical causes of shin splints, let’s see what can be done to get yourself back to 100% if you’re currently dealing with shin splints (I’m addressing some of my 6pm ladies) or get shin splints in the future?  Dr. Wright’s first point addresses poor biomechanics during running, or really any plyometric movement. We don’t want your knees and ankles rolling inward when we squat let alone if we are running and jumping where the force upon our bodies can reach upwards of 2-3x your body weight. Her second point can be addressed with our strength training, but also refer back to Ruth’s “Shin Splints” post from 2009 and get to work on drawing the alphabet with your toes. This activity will help to strengthen and improve the mobility in some of the muscles surrounding your ankles.  Dr. Wright’s third and final point is something that we can address with scaling workouts to find the happy medium to challenge your conditioning without over-doing it and causing your shin splints to continually flare up.  If they become painful grab an ice cup from the office freezer and spend some time ice masssaging your tender areas.  This will reduce inflammation, reduce pain, and expedite the recovery process.

Your best bet is to attack shin splints from all three angles to really expedite your recovery. Also, check out MobilityWOD.com founder Kelly Starrett’s advice in the video below:

WOD 5.09.12

Back Squat 3×5/Wendler
Turkish Get-Up 2-2-2

In the Coaches’ office we now have a deep freezer where ice cups and cold packs are located.  Should you feel banged up after a workout, feel free to grab one and ice right away before the inflammation gets worse.  Read on to learn the best way to use the ice cup.

With all the hard work we put in at Intrepid, our muscles, joints, and bodies tend to get a little banged up. When you mention you shoulder, knee, wrist, elbow, or [fill in the blank here] hurts, one of the first things we typically ask you to do is to ice the affected area. I think for every 10 times we mention it, 1 of you may actually do it.

To simplify and expedite the icing process check out this CrossFit Invictus post about Ice massage. Here’s the skinny:

1. Fill your foam cup with water until it is almost full. You’ll want to leave some room for the expansion of ice.
2. Place the cup in your freezer overnight or until the ice is solid
3. Peel away the foam cup to expose the ice
4. Keeping the ice moving, massage the affected area in small circles for 5 to 7 minutes. You can use a towel to clean up as the ice melts

The advantages are numerous, and according to Jointhealing.com icing decreases the flow of fluid into the injured tissues and slows the release of chemicals that cause pain and inflammation. Cold decreases feeling in an area by reducing the ability of the nerve endings to conduct impulses. It may also reduce pain by “countering” the injury. For example, you might counter the pain of a sore tooth by pinching yourself hard in the leg. Cold also decreases the activity of cells to reduce swelling and internal bleeding at the site of acute injury. Cooling the deep tissue also reduces muscle spasm by reducing the muscle’s ability to maintain a contraction (contractility). Because cold reduces bleeding and swelling within injured tissue, it is best used in the first 48 hours after an injury and usually longer after a surgery. Ice massage gets the tissue to the same cold temperature as a simple bag of ice, but does it 3-4 times more quickly. Take a few minutes and freeze a few cups so when you get a pinch in your shoulder or your shins are hurting the ice cup is ready to go as soon as you get home. It’s the least you can do after you beat up your body.

Further Reading:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/140987-the-benefits-ice-massage/

WOD 4.28.12

6-8 40 yd Prowler Pushes
Yoke Carries
Tabata Sledgehammer Strikes

We’re currently just a little over a week and a half into the April Sleep Challenge and hopefully those of you participating are tweaking your habits to improve your slumber. Remember, weekly sleep logs are due each Thursday no later than 8pm. The following people said they were going to join in, but I never received a sleep log:

1. Randy
2. Kyle
3. Celina
4. Bryant
5. Scott
6. Holley

No harm if you’ve decided not to play along, but if you’re interested in keeping it official, make sure you send me Week 1 data ASAP and keep them coming by each week’s deadline. For those that chose not to participate, perhaps you wonder if this is really all that important. There was an interesting infographic I recall seeing last year that spoke to the sleep habits of several pro athletes along with some statistics culled from various studies. Here’s a brief excerpt (click to enlarge):

• Maximum bench press dropped by 20 lbs after 4 days of restricted sleep
• Chronic sleep loss can lead to a 30-40% reduction in glucose metabolism (see my post on shift workers)
• Sleep loss leads to an 11% reduction in time to exhaustion

I encourage you to check out the full infographic for some more reasons to improve your sleep. Looking at the portion above, you can see that it says the average person gets only 6hrs, 44min of sleep per night. Even with some of the power sleepers we have in the gym, my small sampling shows that our gym average is quite close to that mark, at a mere 6hrs, 50min. If you’re getting less than 8 hours of sleep a night, what’s the reason? Is it something you can easily fix, like watching too much reality TV, video games or time spent on Facebook? When you ponder your personal goals, consider whether you are getting in your own way. If your aim is to improve your results on the whiteboard, set more PRs or improve your body composition, make sure you take steps to get the rest you need.

“If your own reality is so pathetic that you have to live in someone else’s reality, it’s time to assess your life and determine if it’s really worth living anymore” – Jim Wendler

Happy birthdays to Kathy and Vik today!  (Vik seems to be camera shy.  We’ll get a photo of you for next year!)

WOD 04.23.12

Press 3×5 or Wendler
Back Squat 3×5
Cash Out with Weighted Pull Ups 1-1-1

How is everyone doing on the sleep challenge so far? Remember, your first week’s log is due tonight in my inbox no later than 8pm.

What seems to be throwing some people is the zero electronics “bonus” challenge. Both Ray and Scott mentioned that they noticed themselves getting sleepy very soon and wondered if they should force themselves to stay awake for the full hour.

Look people — bonus or no bonus, the name of the game here is more sleep. If your body is telling you to get some shuteye, listen to it! If you get sleepy soon after you light those candles, this is telling you a few things:

You see the way the blue lights have been altering your sleep

You probably are not getting enough sleep yet

You should likely push your bedtime earlier

If you push that bedtime earlier and are making a solid 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep, you’ll probably find you will make it through the full hour. Don’t fret, as you will still get the benefit of very relaxed and deep slumber.

Another issue that people brought up is that they wake sooner than they planned. In some cases, much sooner. This is again your body letting you know that something is slightly amiss. This may be due to some overcooked adrenals, which can be any combination of too much stress, too much caffeine, overtraining or a combo platter. A first step you could try is using one of the magnesium supplements that I’ve mentioned before – either Natural Calm or ZMA.

Lastly, I want to leave you with a clip that I saw on NBC’s Nightly News. This segment speaks about shift work (typically referring to those on graveyard shift) and how a recent study found it negatively affects the body. Listen to what few hours sleep these workers are getting as well as their eating habits and the consequences that follow.

WOD 04.19.12

Skills Day