Becka's Bars from Crossfit Norcal

Check out this healthy and economical way to make energy bars,  great to snack on at work, on the run, or before a workout.  I will try to make them soon and let you know how they turn out!

Becka's Bars from Crossfit Norcal

Modern Health Guidelines Disparity in Views

How can there be so much discourse on health guidelines? Especially looking back the last five decades, one can see the varying views on what to eat from low-fat diets to low saturated fat to high carbohydrate diets.  Here are two articles that describe how research can be skewed and manipulated and cause a devastating health epidemic as seen in the US.

Modern Diet-Health Epidemiology: a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? Part I

Modern Diet-Health Epidemiology: a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? Part II

Shoulder Impingement

Here is a link to a video about how to treat and prevent shoulder impingement.  Kelly Starret is a PT and works closely and specifically with Crossfit.  He has other great videos in the Crossfit Journal on working with injured athletes rehabilitation exercises.

Crossfit Journal

Different way to gain strength!!!

Watch this video from Catalyst Athletics on different styles of weight training. They emphasize olympic lifting but still incorporate some Crossfit metabolic conditioning and different training techniques from kettlebells to lifting kegs and water-filled sacs.

Catalyst Athletics Video

Deadlift

Cleans

Check out this article on the proper positioning for the Clean and terminology:
The Scoop and second pull

Notes: 

Regoli: Good first pull (deadlift) but continue to straighten the knees and work on the scoop and the second pull) (re-bending the knees, getting the spine upright to explode the bar straight up and drop under it).  Watch your elbows and how slow they are compared to Chelsea's and Joey"s.  See how your elbows end directly under the bar, they should be in front of bar in the rack (front squat) position.  You are catching the bar with your hands which is harder the heavier you go!

Chelsea:  Looks good!  Keep upping the weight and make sure you get that first pull (deadlift) to the top of the knees and you explode (scoop) the weight up and get the elbows around.

Joey:  Needs work on the first pull and keeping the chest up a little bit on first pull (deadlift) and then dropping under the bar while staying back on heels.  TO work on this you can practice heavy deadlifts (or pulls) and front squats (or drop squats).

Crossfit Workout:
"Dianne"
21-15-9
275lb deadlift
handstand pushups

Crossfit Football Workout:
15-10-5
315lb deadlift
20 yd sprint
pull ups

Crossfit Cadence Workout:
push press 5x3 (30 sec rest between sets)

21-15-9
135lb deadlift
burpees
box hop

Maddi Taylor Lucas showing how to "Crossfit"

Good workout Maddy!!!- 5 1/3 rds in 20 min of: 250m row, 12 box hops, 12 JPU's

Paleo Diet and Exercise in a nutshell

Zone Meal

Roxanne is going to take the plunge and give the Zone diet a try.  Here is her first meal consisting of : arugula, 1 tomato, cucumber, 2 oz chicken, 1 oz feta, 2 Tbs avocado, and 1/3 Tbs olive oil = 3 block meal.  

Looking good so far!

When you see Roxanne, wish her luck! 

Here ya go Matt; a little air time for being my first follower

Shout out from Robb Wolf

Check me out on Robb Wolf's blog where he posted my email I wrote to him about how his diet helped me. http://robbwolf.com/?p=537

People always ask "what should I eat" and expect a simple answer.  It takes more than a minute to educate on nutrition and find what each person is willing to do to change their diet.  If you want a one liner on what to eat, here it is: "eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar."  This is basic a paleolithic diet.  If you want to be more precise by measuring and accounting for exactly what you eat, you can use the zone diet.  All these resources can be found under the nutrition tab on the right side bar.

Here is the long response of what to eat with my experience:

I have been tweaking my diet with all of this for about three months now as there are many variations.  Following the zone diet will help you lean out as I lost about 8 lb (not intentionally) from doing so, which may have been too lean for me.  I leaned out even following the athlete zone diet which ups your fat intake to replace all the calories you burn from exercise.  I increased my fat intake 5 times the normal amount and still remained light.  This shows that I metabolized a lot of fat for my energy source, not carbs, proving you do not need carbs for energy ( but it does take a transition period for your body to switch). I lost some weight due also in part to the paleolithic aspect of my diet where all my calories came from wholesome natural foods such as meat, vegetables, fruit, and nuts (and obviously no alcohol!). I simply was not consuming enough calories (at least to maintain the body weight that I wanted in order to lift heavy weights).  I did no gluten (breads, pastries, pastas), no grains, no beans, and no dairy.  My energy level  felt great and my recovery each and every day was awesome.  After every workout I felt like I was going to die and by the next day I was ready to go again.  Also before all this I had tendonitis in my shoulder which hurt for about 6 months.  During this diet in never hurt again (this paleolithic diet claims to reduce inflammation). I suggest to give it a try!!! 

So whats next:  After my competition I splurged all week (a bacon, avocado, blue cheese 2/3lb burger, milk shake, french fries, cake, beer, deep fried shrimp, brownies, gelato, and maybe more.).  I felt very sick and my inflammation was back in my shoulder.  Now I am not blaming my diet completely because I think a large part of my sickness and shoulder was due to the fact that the competition workout was the hardest workout of my entire life, but my diet was not helping me in any way that week.  So now I am going to go back to a gluten free paleolithic diet, but maybe not so strict for a few weeks as to give myself a little break.  Now for me to gain a little weight, I am going to put dairy back into my diet, and maybe a larger quantity than normal to get a large initial weight gain, and then back off when needed.  Lets see how it goes!!!

Monday's 1030am C-sport Class: MedBall slam downs, KB swing, MedBall toss, overhead squat - in between sets run to top of street about 300m.

Looks a little like Crossfit and a lot of fun. Everyone's form looks perfect... at least in this photo. Nice squat Roxanne!!!

Any class may have many, some, or no elements of crossfit training. The more different components of exercise you incorporate into your program, the better your fitness results.

Fran (first attempt chest to bar)

Crossfit Norcal Qualifiers

Heres a video from the past weekend in Aromas where I placed 4th in the northern California Crossfit Competition and qualified for a spot in the 2009 Crossfit Games July 10 in Aromas which will host 75 athletes who qualified from every around the world.

MIA

Sorry I have been MIA the past month, I blame training for the Crossfit Norcal Qualifiers. Now that they are over and I qualified for the 2009 Crossfit Games, my work is cut out for me. I will continue to update this blog with my training and information for my clients. As I have taken the past week off to recover from the brutal Sunday WOD #3 (http://games2009.crossfit.com/regionals/super-secret-norcal-sunday-workout.html), my training will begin again on Monday. I plan on following the Crossfit Football WODS, in order to gain strength so I never get hit with a 315lb deadlift unprepared again. I will keep you updated on how the Football WODs go for me!

Joey Warren