08.31.09

FOR TIME:

40-30-20-10
Squat
KB Swing 55# / 35#
Push up
400M Run

GREAT JOB TO…

Shane, Grace and Jessica! We hope to see you back again very soon!

SCHEDULE UPDATE

As of this Friday, we will now have a 6:30pm and 7:00pm class.

We will be closed for Labor Day Sunday 09-06 and Monday 09-07…so get you work outs in!

WHY SOY IS BAD FOR YOU

article borrowed from skrewtips.com

What’s bad about soy? Here, Doctor Mercola talks about soy and the myths behind it. All of those soy alternatives that we vegetarians have long been consuming with the intention of better health are NOT healthy for us. Mercola blames the miscommunication of the true value of soy on the massive public relations done by the soy industry. However, the largely genetically modified crop can inhibit thyroid function, increase estrogen levels in babies using soy formula, and screw up our digestion.

Dangers of soy: The Negative Soy Side Effects: So the real question is: is soy bad for you? Soy is loaded with trypsin inhibitors that prevent proper protein digestion; goitrogen which inhibits thyroid function; phytic acid, a fiber that impairs absorption of minerals; and phytoestrogens which dangerously increase the estrogen hormone.

What Then? A Soy Alternative?: Fermented soy is best. Mercola, advocates the use of fermented organic soy which would include tempeh, natto and miso – but NOT tofu. Fermented foods offer predigested nutrition, which gives our intestinal track a big break. Fermenting food also manipulates the chemical make-up of the product, in order to turn potential poisons into viable nutrients.

What Foods Are Rich in Soy?: No more soy nuggets or soy corn dogs. Watch out for hidden soy in vitamins and supplements.

Hidden sources of soy

Oil used to fry packaged chips and crackers
Commercial nut or hemp milks
Packaged organic meals

What’s a Consumer to Do?: I figure that we can either feel dooped by the health food industry, or we can strap on our thinking caps and realize that every industry needs to profit. That profit may be at the expense of our health. All we can do is continue to educate ourselves. And, of course – READ LABELS

August 31, 2009 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 62 Comments

08.30.09

5 ROUNDS FOR TIME:

15 Power Snatch 95# / 65#
Run 400 meters

August 30, 2009 | Filed Under W.O.D. | Leave a Comment

08.29.09

TABATA DIANE

Tabata Deadlift / Hand Stand Push Ups

For 20 seconds do as many reps of deadlift as you can. Rest 10 seconds. Repeat this 7 more times for a total of 8 sets. Your score is counted by total number of reps in 8 sets.

RX weight: 225# / 155#
RX + weight: 315# / 220#

Rest 1 minute

For 20 seconds do as many reps of hand stand push ups as you can. Rest 10 seconds. Repeat this 7 more times for a total of 8 sets. Your score is counted by total number of reps in 8 sets.

August 29, 2009 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 1 Comment

08.28.09

FOR TIME:

Sprint 200M**
50 Knees to Elbows
Sprint 200M**
40 Knees to Elbows
Sprint 200M**
30 Knees to Elbows
Sprint 200M**
20 Knees to Elbows
Sprint 200M**
10 Knees to Elbows

** We will be offering modifications of rowing or burpees instead of running. This workout will be scaled accordingly.

OVERHEAD SQUAT

3-3-3-3-3 reps

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to you…happy birthday to YOU! Happy birthday dear Julia! Happy birthday to YOU!

GETTING REAL ABOUT THE HIGH PRICE OF CHEAP FOOD

I don’t know about you, but when I go to the grocery store and read the labels about “organic” meats or “free range” eggs, I envision a beautiful farm with a red farm house, birds chirping, animals freely roaming…life is good and simple. Unfortunately, not so much in the modern American Food Industry.

This article from Time.com delves into the high price that we pay for cheap foods. If you are eating Paleo, I highly encourage you to buy local, grass fed, as high a quality food as you can find. Read the full article here

Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won’t bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He’s fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he’ll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an American addiction to meat that has contributed to an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than two-thirds of the population. And when the rains come, the excess fertilizer that coaxed so much corn from the ground will be washed into the Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will help kill fish for miles and miles around. That’s the state of your bacon — circa 2009.

Horror stories about the food industry have long been with us — ever since 1906, when Upton Sinclair’s landmark novel The Jungle told some ugly truths about how America produces its meat. In the century that followed, things got much better, and in some ways much worse. The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. Those hidden prices are the creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can’t even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming — our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy.

And perhaps worst of all, our food is increasingly bad for us, even dangerous. A series of recalls involving contaminated foods this year — including an outbreak of salmonella from tainted peanuts that killed at least eight people and sickened 600 — has consumers rightly worried about the safety of their meals. A food system — from seed to 7?Eleven — that generates cheap, filling food at the literal expense of healthier produce is also a principal cause of America’s obesity epidemic. At a time when the nation is close to a civil war over health-care reform, obesity adds $147 billion a year to our doctor bills. “The way we farm now is destructive of the soil, the environment and us,” says Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist with the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

Some Americans are heeding such warnings and working to transform the way the country eats — ranchers and farmers who are raising sustainable food in ways that don’t bankrupt the earth. Documentaries like the scathing Food Inc. and the work of investigative journalists like Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan are reprising Sinclair’s work, awakening a sleeping public to the uncomfortable realities of how we eat. Change is also coming from the very top. First Lady Michelle Obama’s White House garden has so far yielded more than 225 lb. of organic produce — and tons of powerful symbolism. But hers is still a losing battle. Despite increasing public awareness, sustainable agriculture, while the fastest-growing sector of the food industry, remains a tiny enterprise: according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), less than 1% of American cropland is farmed organically. Sustainable food is also pricier than conventional food and harder to find. And while large companies like General Mills have opened organic divisions, purists worry that the very definition of sustainability will be co-opted as a result.

But we don’t have the luxury of philosophizing about food. With the exhaustion of the soil, the impact of global warming and the inevitably rising price of oil — which will affect everything from fertilizer to supermarket electricity bills — our industrial style of food production will end sooner or later. As the developing world grows richer, hundreds of millions of people will want to shift to the same calorie-heavy, protein-rich diet that has made Americans so unhealthy — demand for meat and poultry worldwide is set to rise 25% by 2015 — but the earth can no longer deliver. Unless Americans radically rethink the way they grow and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs — and bland taste. Sustainable food has an élitist reputation, but each of us depends on the soil, animals and plants — and as every farmer knows, if you don’t take care of your land, it can’t take care of you.

Read the full article here

August 28, 2009 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 105 Comments

08.27.09

AMRAP IN 15 MINUTES OF:

5 Hang Power Cleans 135# / 95#
7 Supine Ring Pull Up
9 Box Jump 20″

POST WOD REFUEL

Post WOD Refuel Male:
above 12% – 30g prot/20g carb
8-12% – 30g prot/30g carb
below 8% – 30g prot/40g carb

Post WOD Refuel Female:
above 16% – 20g prot/10 g carb
12-14% – 20g prot/20 g carb
below 12% – 20g prot/30 g carb

WELCOME LEXIE

We are super excited to have you at CrossFit Peachtree and look forward to getting you in the best shape of your life!

GREAT JOB TO…

Heather and Wai! We look forward to see you again very soon!

GET SOME ZZZZZs

I found this article by Melissa Byers this morning and wanted to share…much easier than writing up one myself ! For those of you that I am working with on nutrition, you know I constantly ask you how you are sleeping. Sleep plays a HUGE roll in fat loss…huge. Not only that, you just feel and perform better throughout the day when you get your zzz’s. Read on and let me know if you have any questions…

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the role sleep plays in our overall health and fitness pursuits. It’s a factor often discounted, placed well behind training and diet. We weight and measure our food, we diligently count reps and record times, but we get home and put bedtime off for a few hours in favor of watching our favorite TV show or surfing the internet. I’ve been guilty of it myself – staying up late writing blog posts but still dragging my butt out of bed at 5 AM for a workout. I would think, “Suck it up – once you get up and slam a coffee, you’ll feel much better.” And I prided myself on my discipline and motivation that early in the morning.

Let’s face it – our Western society encourages this. I won’t even get into our long work weeks, self-created family demands, or the technology distractions that keep us up late and wake us up early. No, I’ll just wrap all of that up by saying that somehow along the way, functioning on less sleep has become a point of pride, and a trait to be admired. You shake your head in awe at the guy who claims he runs just fine on five hours of sleep a night. He’s a superhero, the model of efficiency, a Person Who Gets Things Done. I’m here to tell you, he is also full of shit. NOBODY runs well on five hours of sleep a night. He may think he’s doing just fine, but Google “lack of sleep” + “(insert disease here)” and you’ll quickly realize that sleep deprivation will smuck up a whole host of bodily systems, and contributes to (in part) stress, inflammation, cancer, heart disease and diabetes. As one University of Chicago researcher puts it, “Lack of sleep disrupts every physiologic function in the body… (and) we have nothing in our biology that allows us to adapt to this behavior.”

And here’s where I hit all your 30 day’ers where it hurts. I’m not just talking about sleep affecting your recovery from training, or reducing your stress… no, I’m pulling out the big guns. While diet plays a crucial role in body composition, sleep also plays a significant role… specifically, in fat loss. There are all kinds of studies relating sleep to insulin resistance, leptin levels and cortisol levels… all related to fat loss. Robb Wolf also has a great post on the effects of sleep on those pesky love handles – read the article and all the comments for the details. And here is a quick abstract that gives you yet another reason why getting that 8-9 hours of sleep a night is CRUCIAL to fat loss. (Have I said “fat loss” enough? Do I have your attention?)

So, it looks like we’ve been missing the bus here. Sleep is more than just lovely – in fact, from everything I’ve been reading and researching, turns out sleep may be the second most important success factor in your health and fitness pursuits. That’s right, NUMBER TWO… just behind diet, and AHEAD of training. I’ve been preaching sleep to my clients for a few weeks now, and I’m about to step up my game with the rest of you blog readers. Think of sleep as a factor JUST as important as whether you’re eating grains and dairy, or how often you’re picking up heavy stuff. Experiment, just as you did with some dietary factors. Try getting 8+ hours of sleep every single night for two weeks, and see how you feel. And don’t tell me you can’t, because you have some special circumstance that the rest of us don’t. We all work, we all have families, and friends, and outside pursuits, and stress. Figure out how to make it happen, because it’s as worthy a pursuit as changing every aspect of your diet was more than thirty days ago. Easier said than done, I’ll give you that, but Mercola has some good tips on how to improve the quality of your sleep. And consider getting the book Lights Out – Sleep, Sugar and Survival for what I have heard is a good read on the subject. (I just ordered it, in an effort to educate myself a bit more about the importance of sleep as a factor in nutritional and performance coaching.)

By the way – I AM taking my own advice, I assure you. Yesterday morning, my alarm went off at 5 AM for the gym. It was a less than stellar night, however, as I was up tossing and turning until after 11 PM. So I turned my alarm off and slept until the sun woke me up at 7:20. My “training” that day consisted of eating really well, taking all my fish oil and getting a massage to help me de-stress. THAT’S what I did to take care of myself, and I know it did me far more good than dragging my bleary-eyed butt out of bed for some mediocre met-con action.

So do your homework, plan ahead and turn the lights out nice and early tonight. And if anyone does take me up on my two week Sleep-A-Palooza, let me know how it goes.

August 27, 2009 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 59 Comments

08.26.09

AMRAP in 20 MINUTES OF:

2 Muscle-ups
4 Handstand Push-ups
8 Kettlebell swings 55# / 35#

If you cannot do muscle-ups, do 6 pull ups and 6 dips. If you can, do ring dips.

If you cannot do full ROM handstand push ups, meaning head touching floor without any assistance, (WITHOUT ABMATS), you will do 8 handstands with Abmat (head MUST touch Abmat), pike push ups or handstand holds.

About this Hero WOD
Chief Petty Officer Nate Hardy was killed Sunday February 4th during combat operations in Iraq. Nate is survived by his wife, Mindi, and his infant son Parker. Please keep this in mind when you are working out!

The last regular WOD will start at 6:30PM

ELITE WOD @ 7PM

Max Reps Weighted Push ups x 3

FOR TIME:
15, 10, 5
Hang Power Snatch 135# / 95#
Box Jumps 24″
Chest to Bar Pull Ups

POST WOD REFUEL FOR BOTH WODS

Post WOD Refuel Male:
above 12% – 30g prot/20g carb
8-12% – 30g prot/30g carb
below 8% – 30g prot/40g carb

Post WOD Refuel Male:
above 16% – 20g prot/10 g carb
12-14% – 20g prot/20 g carb
below 12% – 20g prot/30 g carb

FOUNDATION CLASS REMINDER @ 7PM

If you are new to CrossFit, please attend this Foundations Class. Content will vary based on attendance, but the purpose of this class is to cover the basics of the CrossFit Foundational movements and Olympic Lifts.

GREAT JOB

…to visiting CrossFitter, Tim!

NUTRITION SEMINAR

The seminar that was schedule for this Saturday is cancelled due to lack of attendance.

OKTOBERFEST GAMES

We are looking for individuals who would like to compete! Please let us know if you are interested. If any of you have an interest in training for the Games next year, we highly recommend attending!

For more information on this event, click here. Or check out our Facebook page.

RAW MILK INFORMATION

Want to know more about raw milk? Check out this site.

August 26, 2009 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 56 Comments

08.25.09

AMRAP IN 20 MINUTES OF:

5 Thrusters 95# / 65#
7 Hang Power cleans 95# / 65#
10 Sumo Deadlift High-pull 95# / 65#

Post WOD Refuel Male:
above 12% – 40g prot/20g carb
8-12% – 40g prot/40g carb
below 8% – 40g prot/60g carb

Post WOD Refuel Female:
above 16% – 30g prot/20 g carb
12-14% – 30g prot/35 g carb
below 12% – 30g prot/50 g carb

Eat a balanced meal 45-60 min after Post WOD Refuel.

WHY GRASSFED BEEF

Exert from interview with Dr. Jonny Bowden…

Q: I was in the organic store the other day and they were trumpeting how ground beef in the grocery store usually has the DNA of 1,000 different cows in it, while farm-raised organic stuff is often from one cow. Should I care?

A: You should care very much, but probably for slightly different reasons.

Ground beef in the grocery store inevitably comes from what we call “feedlot farms.” These places are basically factories, and they bear as much resemblance to the old country farms of our childhood as a cheap Casio keyboard does to a handmade Steinway grand piano.

Cows on these “farms” are production machines for meat and milk. They’re fed grain, which isn’t their natural diet, and which causes great acidity in their systems. This produces “meat product” that’s very high in inflammatory omega-6’s and woefully lacking in omega-3’s.

They’re kept in confined pens and fed antibiotics to prevent the sickness that inevitably arises from the close quarters. They’re fed steroids and “bovine growth hormone” to help fatten them up. Then they’re “processed.” Whether the end product — the meat that winds up on your plate — has the DNA of 1,000 cows in it or not, it’s not something you should be eating.

Grass-fed meat is a whole different ballgame. Cows were meant to graze on pasture —their natural diet is grass, and when they roam on pasture and graze on grass their meat is higher in omega-3’s and CLA (conjugated linolenic acid), an important fat that has anti-cancer activity and may also help reduce abdominal fat. Since the cattle aren’t in confined quarters and they’re not eating primarily grains, they don’t get sick as much and aren’t fed massive quantities of antibiotics.

Now, “organic” meat is somewhere in between the two extremes. It usually means the cows were fed organic grain, which is only a minor improvement since cows shouldn’t be eating a diet of grain in the first place.

While the perception is that organically raised meat is better than non-organic meat, it’s still not nearly as good as grass-fed (pasture raised). Sometimes grass-fed meat is also organic, but some very conscientious farmers who raise real, healthy, pasture-grazing cows don’t meet some obscure government standard for organic so they’re not able to say their meat is “organic.”

I wouldn’t worry about it. Given a choice, I’d go with grass-fed over organic every time, though in the best of all worlds, you’d get both.

For what it’s worth, every study you’ve ever seen that talks about the bad health consequences of meat eating is looking at people who eat highly processed meat from factory farms. It would be very interesting to see if there are the same negative consequences to eating a diet of grass-fed (organic) beef with plenty of vegetables to balance it out.

No study like that has ever been done, but my hunch is that if people ate that way, the so-called “negative” health effects ascribed to eating meat would disappear.

August 25, 2009 | Filed Under W.O.D. | 72 Comments