10.31.08

CFHQ Rest Day + Happy Halloween!

Come in today to make up any of the past three workouts

Healthy Holiday Eating

I’ve blogged about holiday food before, I love the holiday season and love some of the food. What I really don’t love though, is the fact that most people feel the need to completely go nuts when it comes to food. On average, a traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner can contain more than 2,000 calories! That’s more than most of us need in a day…all wrapped up in one meal.

You guys are working hard and seeing results from CrossFit, by adding a high quality Paleo, Zone or clean eating diet to your lifestyle, you are going to see some amazing results. All too often though, when it comes to diet, people are concerned with what you CAN’T eat as opposed to what you can, especially with the holidays.

There are many nutritional goodies in our traditional dinner that shouldn’t be overlooked:

5 Healthy Holiday Foods
Pumpkin – Pumpkin is rich in Vitamin A and also provides fiber. Pumpkin seeds are high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids (the good fats). Pumpkin itself is quite low in calories and is a healthy holiday food. Okay, this does NOT mean that pumpkin pie is good for you just because it has pumpkin in it.

Cranberries – Cranberries are packed with Vitamin C and also provide a fair amount of dietary fiber and manganese. Cranberries also contain proanthocyanidins, a type of antioxidant that can prevent the adhesion of bacteria to the urinary tract sometimes causing urinary tract infections. Unfortunately, one of my childhood faves, the canned cranberry, aren’t ranked among the healthy foods. They are loaded with extra refined sugar.

Sweet Potato – Sweet Potato is a rich source of antioxidants such as Vitamin C and beta-carotene. Similar to the banana, it is also an excellent source of potassium. If you eat the skin, you will also reap the health benefits of fiber, making the sweet potato a healthy holiday food. Again, like the pumpkin…putting sweet potato in a pie or loading them up with brown sugar and butter…not a healthy option. If you must use butter, try Olivo or some type of Olive Oil based product instead…tastes the same as butter without the saturated fats or cholesterol.

Turkey – In addition to being an excellent source of protein, turkey offers the least amount of fat per serving, among all other meats, if you pass on the skin.

Green Beans – Green beans are probably one of the healthiest holiday foods out there. They are an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin K (important in bone health) and manganese. They also contain a good amount of vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, folate, and iron. Green bean casserole in a traditional Thanksgiving meal is rather high in calories as it contains butter, cream of mushroom and cheese. Prepare this dish with lower-fat version of these ingredients such as fat-free cream of mushroom and skip the butter and you will be able to enjoy the yummy taste without the guilt!

October 31, 2008 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 8 Comments

10.30.08

“Angie”

For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

Welcome…

to Jenny D and Jess A! Great job yesterday! We are excited to have you at CrossFit Peachtree :)!

Reminder…

The first CrossFit Peacthree social is coming up soon. Please don’t forget to RSVP on Facebook or the evite no later than November 11th.

Baby Got Back…or Hips anyway…

“HIPS!” You always hear us saying that. Developing hip strength is the core to developing elite athleticism. In any full-body movement, the hips are the central source of power. The strongest muscles surround the hips, and muscle strength diminishes progressively as you move further from them. A shapely buttocks is typically a strong buttocks, and a strong buttocks generally means a strong person. So if you want to decide at a glance whether a person is capable of sprinting and jumping after large prey, and then carrying it home, the rump is a good place to look.

So start checking out butts and you’ll be able to tell just how athletically capable a person is. Guys, “I was just checking out your athletic abilities” is unlikely to work with the ladies though. But if you find one that it does work with, she’s a keeper. Read more about the roll of strong hips on Modern Forager…

October 30, 2008 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 9 Comments

10.29.08

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Watch this great Shoulder Press, Push Press, Push Jerk Tri-Panel to see the difference between the moves side-by-side.

Better than Yesterday

Once again, the boys at Again Faster put out another great article this morning:

In October of 2006, Greg Glassman gave me the most important lesson of my life. It has nothing to do with barbells or pull-ups, sweat or pain. In fact, it has very little to do with exercise at all.

His words, paraphrased and non-profound: The pursuit of excellence is rewarded.

Simple and axiomatic, it would be easy to dismiss this lesson as self-help drivel. Yet put into action, it is the most powerful thing on the planet. It’s taken me two years to appreciate its potency, and ten short months to see its effects.

I’ve pared it down for my own use, coining a three-word phrase that reminds me that today is not just another day: Better than yesterday.

Today is an opportunity to run faster than ever before. To lift more weight. To make better videos and write better articles. To create better athletes. To make every client happy. To embrace the fact that yesterday’s efforts were nothing more than an unsatisfactory attempt at an uncompromising ideal.

You’ve got to reject where you are before you can get where you’re going.
“Better than yesterday” is hard. It requires you to be your own worst critic, while maintaining the belief that you are fully capable of remedying your own faults.

This juxtaposition can be hard to sustain. It is easy to find satisfaction in mere competency, to believe that the job you’re doing is the best you can do. The identification of fault is much harder on the ego, an unending assault on the bastion of identity. “Better than yesterday”, with its implicit focus on excellence and explicit criticism of self, is an uncomfortable place.

I have a whiteboard in my office, bearing the unceremonious title “Things We Suck At”. This list is the CEO of Again Faster, and it says nasty things about me and my company. It keeps me honest and unsatisfied, and the second I become smug, it’s there to drive me into action, mocking me for my shortcomings. I don’t particularly like to look at that whiteboard, but it keeps us on a beeline toward excellence, and it’s done more for our company than any consultant ever could.

When Greg drew a capital “E” on the whiteboard at CrossFit Boston and launched into the relationship between excellence and reward, I understood his point, but I didn’t really get it. The concept was too vague. Two years later, “better than yesterday” has given me a concrete way to act on his philosophy, and the results have been profound. We’re way better off than we were yesterday, and tomorrow will prove to be even brighter.

Take this philosophy, and apply it to your pursuits, whether personal or professional. You’ll find, as I did, that excellence boils down to a simple truth: you’ve got to reject where you are before you can get where you’re going. You’ve got to be better than you were yesterday.

October 29, 2008 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 5 Comments

10.28.08

CFHQ WOD
Squat clean 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

CrossFit Peachtree WOD

Suicide Watch
50 – 30 – 20 (yes, you read those reps right)
Kettlebell Swings
Pull Ups
Sit Ups
Burpees

In between each round, run 400M or row 500M

We’re breaking out some of our old school workouts now…you guys are ready for them :)!

Kettlebell Swings

Who knew a bowling ball with a handle could provide such an effective workout. You guys always hear us scream, “HIPS” every time you do them…it’s your legs and hips that is getting that pet rock above your head, not your arms.

When practicing the KB swing, go through this mental checklist each time:

1. Take a natural squat stance making sure your knees are aligned with your ankles.

Keep your head up and looking straight forward
Keep a straight back- even when bending forward from hips
Sit back rather than dip down

2. Keep weight on your heels during swings until the top of the movement; you may shift your weight on your entire foot if that feels more comfortable.

Maintain your balance at all times.
At the bottom position you should feel your hamstrings stretch.

3. Explode the hips while keeping your arms straight and loose. The power comes from your legs not your arms. (Do not try and muscle the swing). Keep your shoulders down.

4. Lock out the hips and knees at the top position. This is where you develop the power to swing the kettlebell.

Squeeze the glutes tight every time you thrust
Brace your abs to protect your spine.

5. Your breathing should be a power inhale to your abdomen in through the nose at the bottom of the swing. As you snap your hips you let out a little fast breath bracing your spine (like you would with power punches)

October 28, 2008 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 19 Comments

10.27.08

CFHQ Rest Day

Come in and make up any of the past three workouts.

“Elizabeth”
21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

“CrossFit Total”
Back squat, 1 rep
Shoulder Press, 1 rep
Deadlift, 1 rep

Four rounds for time:
Run 400 meters (or row 500 meters)
Rest 2 minutes

Great yesterday job Jessica A.

Hope to see you again very soon!

Most athletes (that means you guys) know that getting enough rest after exercise is essential to high-level performance, but many still over train and feel guilty when they take a day off. The body repairs and strengthens itself in the time between workouts, and continuous training can actually weaken the strongest athletes.

Rest days are critical to sports performance for a variety of reasons. Some are physiological and some are psychological. Rest is physically necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild and strengthen. For all athletes, building in rest days can help attain a higher level of performance.

So give it shot! Try to get in more than 6 hours of sleep per night. If you can try and go to bed early you might notice that your workouts are improving and big gains are being made.

October 27, 2008 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 26 Comments