08.16.10

THREE ROUNDS FOR TIME OF:

30 Wallball shots, 20# / 14#
30 Snatches 75# / 45#

RX = squat snatch starting from below the knee (doesn’t necessarily have to touch the floor). Modifications can be a power snatch. Watch more snatch videos here and here.

STRENGTH WOD

Back Squat 12×60%, 10×70%, 8×80%, 6×85%
Deadlift 12×60%, 10×70%, 8×80%, 6×85%
Reverse Hyper 3×15

ENDURANCE WOD

Run: 3 x .75-1
Mile hill repeats. Holding fastest pace and deviating no more than 1 minute between rounds. 2 minute recovery between sets

C2: 3 x 1000M
Deviating no more than 10 seconds between sets.

NEED RECIPES?

Check out the CrossFit Peachtree Nutrition Blog, Eat.Play.Live. There are some yummy new recipes posted.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Drew’s reaction when I asked if he was cool being featured in the member spotlight was, “are you sure you have the right Drew?” And, that alone, tells you why we featured Drew. Humble, hard working, and just all around a great guy to have at CrossFit Peachtree. Many people think that being inspirational in CrossFit is being the baddest, fastest, strongest person…but not to us. Drew’s answer to question #2 is exactly why I think he is a firebreather…

1. How did you find out about CrossFit Peachtree?
My friend Ken told me about it. He had joined after being a Boot Camp instructor/guru for a very long time. He told me it was the most amazing work-out he had ever had.

2. Favorite WOD or lift:
For sentimental reasons, I’d say Helen. She is the B!&tch that I instantly loved to hate. It was the introductory session that I did with Ray. After I finished the session, I went to my car, laid the seat back, felt the pain, and told myself “I’ll certainly never do THAT again.” In my mind CF was over. I managed to drive myself home and went to bed. When I finally crawled out of bed, I told myself that I was simply not going to let that B!&tch get me down. I decided I wanted to put her in her place! So, I wrote a check for a one year membership to CrossFit, and the challenge began. Every Helen work-out reminds me of the long-term objective to become stronger and not let her beat me down.

3. Least favorite WOD or lift:
Burpees—just the name itself sounds vulgar. I have no idea why it is as exhausting as it is. It’s just a push-up and a little hop. As with so many things in CF, it looks easy but it’s not.

4. My favorite thing to do other than be at CrossFit is…
Travel. I love going to places that no one has ever heard of. Right now I’m in Alpena, Michigan–quaint little town along Lake Huron.

5. Describe yourself in three words:
Comfortable being me.

6. Three things you always find in my fridge:
A bag or box of greens, Eggs (including Egg Whites, and pre-cooked and peeled hard boiled eggs). Boneless skinless chicken breasts (either thawing or marinating to be baked)

7. Favorite restaurant in the ATL:
Babette’s Cafe on N. Highland–good food, not pretentious.

8. Favorite WOD music:
Hate to tell you, but those of us over 40 have never heard of most of that music. I do note that Rebecca frequently plays a song that has a phrase “you crazy b!$tch” in it. I swear I’ve seen her smirk during the song in the most grueling parts of the work-outs as if to say, “Yep, I’m a BadA$$ and there’s nothing you can do about it, so just keep right on with your burpees!” It is inspiring.

9. What did you eat for breakfast today:
I’m on the road and working night shifts so it is REALLY hard to stick to a diet. I’m reliant on what I can fit in my hotel fridge. So today it was 4 hard boiled eggs without the yokes, a peach, and a handful of my own trail mix (pistachios, walnuts, raisins, almonds, sunflower seeds).

10. Your proudest achievement:
Volunteering in an an AIDS clinic for 2 months in a remote village in Zambia. I met some of the greatest people on earth. Maybe I helped them some, but I know they helped me by showing me that my view of the world is so narrow. I delivered a baby at night in a cornfield–the mom acted like it was nothing unusual at all.

11. Your 3 month and 6 month goal:
3 month- to do an Overhead Squat of any weight without hearing “lower Drew, lower, lower!” I’ve been trying to do some Yoga (seated hip openers)to help me get the flexibility I need to do it correctly–I think it’s helping, but I’m not there yet.

6 month- I’m not yet strong enough to do the Girl’s Rx on ANY of the workouts. I hope that I can accomplish doing it on some of the work-outs in 6 months.

12. Tell us about how your life has changed since CrossFit Peachtree:
First, you need to understand I got off to a lousy start in terms of athleticism. Somehow I managed to fall out of a moving car door at the age of 6. Mom brought the family station wagon to a hault—right on top of my leg. Lots of bones were crushed. I was in the hospital a while and “a cripple” for what seemed to be forever. A year later I was pretty much recovered. Then, a bicycle stunt went awry and I was in and out of the hopsital secondary to abdominal trauma for many months. Still think of it when I drive by Piedmont.

By the time I did join the other kids in the usual athletic stuff I was pretty far behind in terms of athletic skills. The typical feedback I got was “not athletically inclined, wimp, sissy, clutz, weakling…” . I took tennis lessons at the age of 9. The coach gave my mom her money back after my 3rd lesson because I had “no potential”. Of course I lost interest and subsequently steered clear of anything athletic.

CFPT has been an environment where it is OK to have little or no natural ability, yet be challenged to break out of the negative labels and pre-formed conclusions that I can’t do something. I could really care less about how much weight I end up lifting, but I care very much about becoming something different and better than what I was. There is such a wide variety of people in our group at different levels of physical skills, but in a sense I feel like we are all on the same plane because we are all trying to be something better than what we currently are. I’ve never felt the guy or girl next to me, who is lifting twice the weight, is looking down on me at CrossFit. I’m grateful that CFPT provides the opportunity for me to become something better without fear of being humiliated in the process. I try to take that mindset with me outside of the gym.

13. Paleo? Primal?
Technically no. I do what I call “Essence of Paleo.” By that I mean that I read through some basics things about Paleo when I started CF and I tried to extract the essence of the philosophy of the diet without the specific details. I think the essence of the diet is that we need to get away from processed stuff, which is a great idea in my mind. The change that I made involved getting away from 5 things: bread/grains, pasta, rice, cakes/cookies, anything with added sugar. I did make the change fairly abruptly.

The hurdle was this: my job is very stressful, and the solution to stress was always a high fat, high carb comfort meal. The comfort meals really did relieve stress, and my mind had been trained to expect it after anything stressful happened. I had to really force myself out of that habbit. Once I did it for about 3 weeks, I was shocked to see that the craving for the high fat, high carb diet was not there anymore after a stressful day. I think the diet is responsible for more energy, less mood lability, sleeping better, and less pronounced love handles!

15. If you could meet anybody in the world…who would it be and why?
Benjamin Franklin–we wouldn’t be America without him. He was very old and severely afflicted with gout when he traveled back and forth to France to help us get our independence. He was brillant and stuck by his convictions despite huge oppositions. He was also odd. Despite his advice, “early to bed, early to rise” he always pissed John Adams off by never getting out of bed before noon because he’d been up drinking and flirting with French ladies all night—sounds like he loved life!

August 16, 2010 | Filed Under Nutrition, W.O.D. | 22 Comments

04.02.10

TABATA SOMETHING ELSE

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Post total reps from all 32 intervals to comments.

CLOSED EASTER

We will be closed on Sunday in observance of the Easter holiday. Get outside and enjoy this amazing weather!

MOVEMENT FOR MACEY TOMORROW!

Please, please, please arrive at approximately 9:45AM tomorrow so we can partner everybody up. We are expecting a lot of people and want to get the show rolling as close to 10AM as possible.

I know a few of you have asked if you can bring friends from other Affiliates in the area. Of course! We just ask that they donate their drop in fee to the Macey fund. They can either bring cash the day of or donate online prior to coming in. We are very thankful for all of the support that the community has given to this event, it really has been overwhelming to see the generosity. CrossFit Naperville is really pulling out all the stops…with quite a few local sponsors and the fire department coming out to support their efforts. It’s really inspiring and exciting to see.

Remember, this is a team WOD and is entirely scalable for ALL fitness levels!

We are VERY excited to report that we have exceeded our goal about and are at approximately $2300!! With one day left to go, I am hoping that we get at least to $2500. We plan on making to donation to Macey’s fund at some point next week, so keep those donations coming in.

With one day to go…Alicia S is in the lead to win the massage from Monica…with a $700 donation!! Incredible. Thank you just isn’t enough, Matt and Alicia…you guys are amazing!

WHEN:

Saturday, April 3rd

TIME:

10AM

DONATE:

MOVEMENT FOR MACEY: THE WOD

AMRAP in 15 MINUTES OF:
200M Partner Carry

30 (as a team) Power Clean + Jerk 135# / 95#
30 (as a team) Burpees
200M Partner Carry
30 (as a team) Overhead Squats with PVC

The Rules:

This is a partner WOD
During each round of the Partner Carry, each teammate must take a turn…one person cannot complete the entire 200M leg of the WOD. You can carry your partner any way you would like, piggy back, fireman’s carry, etc.
During the first leg, Partner A completes 5 Clean + Jerks, while Partner B completes 5 Burpees, then they will switch, until 30 repetitions are met of each (each person completes 15 of each movement)
Same rules apply for the Overhead Squat leg: while Partner A is completing their 5 OHS, Partner B is holding the DOWN position

LET THE GAMES BEGIN…

The 6 Pack Contest officially begins today! Don’t forget to weigh and measure yourself. You want to take your waistline measurement right above the center of your belly button. For both the weight and measurement be sure to do it on the same day, each week and first thing in the morning (after a fasted state).

Also, don’t forget to email your results, as well as your “before” pics to me at this address.

In case you missed it on the blog yesterday, this is a good resource to help guide you in food choices.

ISOLATION EXERCISES

I must admit, after first drinking the CrossFit kool-aid, I left all isolation movements behind. However, as I have attended more and more certification courses (particularly the Powerlifting cert), and have had some experience with minor injuries/weaknesses, I have slowly reconsidered my initial knee jerk reaction to all things isolation being lame, and, personally, have added some isolation movements back into my workouts (gasp!). In the short amount of time that I have added a few targeted isolation movements on weaker muscle groups, I am already feeling stronger. So, when I read this article, I had to share. Does this mean I think you should go start doing bicep curls in lieu of pull ups? Absolutely not. Remember, I said targeted to areas of weakness, not because you want to be like the guys on Jersey Shore.

Article courtesy of The Performance Menu

Black and white statements can generally be dismissed as ignorant, if not downright stupid. Those making such statements may not be stupid—they may just have been persuaded by stupid individuals to not actually think about what they’re saying (lots of that going around these days). Isolation exercises are not functional. Possibly one of the stupidest things that’s ever been said. Let’s consider why for a moment.

First, to classify something as functional or not, we better understand what the term functional means: “designed for or capable of a particular function or use,” is how Princeton’s online dictionary defines it. By this definition, anything is functional; for example, supinating dumbbell curls are wholly functional because they were created in order to train both the elbow flexion and forearm rotation functions of the biceps, and do exactly that.

That being said, I do realize that in the context of exercise, people have a different sense of the word in mind. There is a vague notion of “natural” or multijoint or similar to certain athletic movements. This still makes little sense, considering that many of what would widely be considered functional exercises have no resemblance at all to any natural movement, and that the variety of athletic movements pretty much ensures that something resembling movement for one sport has nothing to do with another sport. This leaves us with a few extremely basic exercises such as squatting, pulling and pressing variations that could be universally considered “functional”.

The point of all this is simply to say that using the functional tag to justify or reject the use of exercises is not particularly… functional. Determining the appropriateness of a given exercise is something that requires knowledge of the athlete who will be using it and for what purpose it will be used. In other words, the question is not, Is this exercise functional? but Is this exercise productive in this case? Anyone who can look you in the eye with a straight face and tell you that with regard to isolation exercises, the answer is always no, is a moron.

Even if you never once in your entire career use or prescribe an isolation exercise, you should be doing so because you’ve determined that in all the cases you’ve encountered, it has not been appropriate—not because you heard on the internet that isolation exercises are only for bodybuilders, and that bodybuilders are unathletic wankers. Neither concept is necessarily true, and more importantly, the mindset that would allow decisions like exercise selection to be made on such absurd pretenses is an enormous handicap for either a coach or athlete.

Since it’s essentially impossible to actually isolate a single muscle short of direct electric stimulation or some kind of brain probing anyway, if it makes you feel better, call them focus exercises rather than isolation exercises—they’re simply a way to ensure a certain muscle group, function, position or movement is receiving adequate training within the program as a whole. I’m not sure why this notion has become so repugnant to so many.

When and Why
The most obvious situation in which isolation work is potentially useful or even necessary is the case of injury rehabilitation, such as encouraging hypertrophy in a post-injury or surgery atrophied muscle. Another is correcting imbalances that are disrupting proper movement and/or creating opportunity for injury. Finally, there are simply certain muscles and functions that are not trained to a great enough degree for certain individuals using “functional” exercises.

A perfect example of this last point is the neck. For athletes such as football players, wrestlers and other combat athletes, neck strength and stamina is critical not only for success but safety. If, as a trainer or coach, you instruct one of these athletes to not do any neck work, because isolation training is not functional and totally uncool, you are an irresponsible, ignorant wanker who should lose his or her job. I mean that in the nicest, most supportive manner possible. Personally, I think neck training is good for everyone, whether or not they plan on running into large people or trying not to get flattened against a sweaty mat.

Finally, let’s talk about aesthetics. Set aside your puritanical athletic focus for a moment and consider the fact that EVERYONE cares about how they look. Yes, some care more than others and consequently prioritize goals differently. But anyone who says they have absolutely no interest in their appearance is either lying or so enlightened that they have very little time left here on Earth anyway. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, trying desperately to prove to the world that you only care about performance, and that anyone who thinks otherwise is a wanker, is, in my opinion, no less narcissistic than of what these individuals are accusing others. Get over it and move on.

Jay Schroeder made a great point once when asked why his football players did curls. Quite simply, he believed that doing curls made bigger biceps, bigger biceps made the players feel good about their appearance, feeling good about their appearance made the players more confident, and that increased confidence made them play better. From this perspective, curls can be considered completely functional for the football player. If it improves performance, who cares how? So throw in some curls, calf-raises and shrugs if you feel like it, and don’t take anyone’s shit about it.

Think About It
This article isn’t necessarily meant to encourage everyone to start using a bunch of isolation work in their training—it’s simply to encourage some consideration of why you’re doing what you’re doing…or not doing. If you can honestly evaluate the needs of yourself or your clients and determine there is no reason to include any isolation work, there’s nothing wrong with that. If, however, there is a need or use for it and you refuse to include it, you need to step back and re-evaluate your perspective. The interweb is abounding with good (among the bad) information regarding neck training, grip training and other similar elements you may consider employing. Spend some time reading and speaking with other coaches and athletes—with an open mind. Just because you hear or see it doesn’t mean you have to agree with or use it. But if you don’t even give yourself the chance to learn about it, you’re going to have a tough time implementing it.

April 2, 2010 | Filed Under Events, Nutrition, W.O.D. | 68 Comments

03.31.10

3 ROUNDS FOR TIME OF:

4 Handstand Push-ups
8 Barbell Ground-to-Overhead 135# / 95#
12 Burpees

Ground-to-Overhead means exactly that…use any method: Power Clean + Jerk / Push Press, Power Snatch, reverse curl and shoulder press (definitely not recommended).

GREAT JOB TO…

Mike! We are looking forward to seeing you back again very soon!

MOVEMENT FOR MACEY…3 DAYS TO GO!

With three days to go, we are still about $700 short of our goal of $2000. Please do anything you can to help!

NUTRITION CONTEST CLARIFICATION

Let’s talk about the point system…

1 drink = 1 cheat. That means 1 cheat meal. For example, Ray and I went to dinner last night and had a bottle of wine, though I had grass fed beef. My food was Paleo, but I drank more than one glass of wine. That counts as 1 of my cheat meals for the week. Obviously I am not advocating excessive drinking since it’s your one “cheat meal.”

This is a contest…it’s only 6 weeks…you want to see some results, you have to work for it.

GROWTH HORMONE…THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

Article courtesy of Anaerobicinc.com

Ever heard people talk about Growth Hormone? What is it responsible for? Whats the big deal?

Growth Hormone: (GH) is a protein based poly-peptide hormone. It stimulates growth and cell reproduction and regeneration in humans and other animals. It is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide hormone that is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of the anterior pituitary gland. Somatotropin refers to the growth hormone produced natively and naturally in animals, whereas the term somatropin refers to growth hormone produced by recombinant DNA technology,^[1] and is abbreviated “rhGH” in humans. Growth hormone is used clinically to treat children’s growth disorders and adult growth hormone deficiency. In recent years, replacement therapies with human growth hormones (hGH) have become popular in the battle against aging and weight management. Reported effects on GH deficient patients (but not on healthy people) include decreased body fat, increased muscle mass, increased bone density, increased energy levels, improved skin tone and texture, increased sexual function and improved immune system function. At this time hGH is still considered a very complex hormone and many of its functions are still unknown. Read More on Wikipedia

Why is growth hormone so important? Look at this graph and you might recognize a decline in relation to age…

About 10 years ago there was a big boom with people getting GH replacement therapy. People are still doing it today. Some believe it is the “Fountain of Youth”… It is not, but what it does is pretty damn important.

Your bodies ability to recover is the reason why you get better. Weather it be form sickness, or training. Your bodies ability to prodice GH is vital to that recovery. As we age, and as you can see above, that deteriorates over time. So, that means it gets tougher to recover. So if you get it the GH bumped up it makes it easier to recover. Not to mention, it keeps you looking younger. There is a ton of research about GH and the skin, which is why so many people have gone the replacement route. Just google it.

So why the rant? Well, lets jump into the training world. Take a look at these two pictures: There has been a lot of controversy on these actual photos too across the web.

Want to know which guy produces a higher level of GH? Do I really need to ask this?

Its your choice on how you train, but know it will come at a consequence. Everything does!

The guy on the left is the typical endurance athelte or your typical “fit” person who hits the gym 3-5 days a week and gets on the treadmill or spin bike and might lift weights a couple times a week, only because he/she doesnt want to put on any more muscle. God forbid, “I might get bulky”. Although this guy (in the picture) is a stud at his specific sport, he is that… A Specialist. Good on him too. But, do you want to look like him? Have you ever heard the term “Fit Fat”. This is the other part of the equation. Those people who go to the gym, repeating the same thing over and over expecting a different result (that is an actual definition of insanity), as I listed above, are specialists as well. The kicker though is this. They are all overtraining oxidatively and most are eating a diet sound in grains and carbs. The overtraining oxidatively will make you “skinny fat”, or even “fit fat”. You will not see results in performances after a short period of time in your body, and even in your training. The diet thing can be directly related to GH levels as well. See this study on Insulin resistance and growth hormone. High carb diets, those that involve bread, cereal, non-fat dairly, grain (all), and heavy starches, and SUGAR will produce higher levels of insulin. Both of these things, the training and diet, will hinder production of GH. Its why this guy on the left looks like a Praying Mantis.

So whats up with the dude on the right? Genetics, right? Somewhat. Although genetics plays some role, the epigenome has allowed us to understand that we are not stuck with our DNA. The dude on the right, is producing high levels of GH. How would I know that? Read this! Effect of low and high intensity exercise on circulating growth hormone in men.

10 minutes of high intensity exercise is needed to produce higher levels of NATURAL GH. On average most of our workouts run in the 10 minute range… Weird? I think not, as it produces not only GH affects, but there is not a study out there that can show anaerobic/interval training is not superior in every way to better fat utilization.

Ladies and Gentelman, if you want to age faster, and look older yonger you should eat lots of carbs, and run or ride your bike for a set periods of times throughout the week in a monotnous fashion, in order to achieve what the dude on the left looks like. If you would like to look younger, and feel younger, our email is info@anaerobicinc.com.

The education has begun, therefore you have no excuse for mediocrity.

March 31, 2010 | Filed Under Events, Nutrition, W.O.D. | 76 Comments

03.25.10

FOR LOAD:

Front Squats
5 x 5 x 5

Front Squat Good/Bad Bi-panel [wmv][mov]

then

10 ROUNDS FOR TIME OF:

Sprint 100 yards

Rest 10 seconds between rounds. Run with maximal effort.

POST WOD REFUEL

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

Female:
above 16% – 30g prot/20g carb
12-14% – 30g prot/30g carb
below 12% – 30g prot/40g carb

Remember, these are just general guidelines for your post WOD recovery shake. We recommend you bring your recovery meal with you and consume immediately post WOD, up to 45 minutes post WOD. Follow that by a balanced protein/carb/fat meal about 90 minutes afterward.

MOVEMENT FOR MACEY COUNTDOWN: 9 DAYS

Only NINE days until the Movement for Macey WOD. Have you donated yet? This will be the ONLY WOD run on Saturday and it will begin at 10AM SHARP.

WHEN:

Saturday, April 3rd

TIME:

10AM

HOW:

Suggested minimum of $10 donation to participate in the event, but any amount will make a difference, we just ask that you donate SOMETHING. Obviously, we’d love it if you are able to give more:

MOVEMENT FOR MACEY: THE WOD

AMRAP in 15 MINUTES OF:
200M Partner Carry

30 (as a team) Power Clean + Jerk 135# / 95#
30 (as a team) Burpees
200M Partner Carry
30 (as a team) Overhead Squats with PVC

The Rules:

This is a partner WOD
During each round of the Partner Carry, each teammate must take a turn…one person cannot complete the entire 200M leg of the WOD. You can carry your partner any way you would like, piggy back, fireman’s carry, etc.
During the first leg, Partner A completes 5 Clean + Jerks, while Partner B completes 5 Burpees, then they will switch, until 30 repetitions are met of each (each person completes 15 of each movement)
Same rules apply for the Overhead Squat leg: while Partner A is completing their 5 OHS, Partner B is holding the DOWN position
Of course everything in this WOD can be scaled accordingly, our goal is 100% participation!

PLEASE RSVP FOR THE WOD ON FACEBOOK!

SIX PACK CONTEST

It’s been a while since we have done a nutrition contest…and with bikini season right around the corner, I there is no time like the present.

Details are coming soon, but we will kick off the contest on April 1st and it will last six weeks. We are still working on details…but this time I am thinking we do something different. We will have a weigh/measure in, as well as a benchmark WOD to be completed. From there, you will be REQUIRED to keep a weekly food log on Fitday.com.

I am not a huge fan of the Zone…I hate the terminology. I know…probably not kosher to say in the CrossFit world, but it’s the truth. I would rather people learn what protein, carbs and fat are in grams rather than blocks because it translates into real world, they don’t list foods in blocks at the grocery store. I like keeping it simple. Fitday.com is a great, free resource for you to input your foods, get accurate percentages and it will help to keep you accountable. Please note: those of you that are working with me on your nutrition stuff, going forward, this is what we will be using for your food log.

So, this time around, not only your results, but your effort will play a part in who wins. We will have a buy in, so there will be money on the line. Stay tuned for full details next week…

ON THAT NOTE…

I know all of you have spring fever…it’s just that time of year. That doesn’t mean you should be blowing off your WODs! If you haven’t been in the gym in a while…get back in!

A DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SLEEP

Article courtesy of Mark’s Daily Apple

Sleep Awareness Week (as sponsored by the National Sleep Foundation) technically ended March 13th, but somehow I’m guessing there are just as many sleep deprived folks milling about this week as there were a few days ago – just like our good reader Monday. Maybe a few of us feel better adjusted to the time change these days, but probably just as many stayed up late to watch the NCAA games this weekend. Or maybe it was a late St. Paddy’s Day party. Somehow it’s always somethin’, isn’t it?

Even if we’re good and diligent and never sacrifice sleep for entertainment purposes, life too often pokes holes in our most worthy intentions. Babies wake up in the middle of the night. Flights leave early. Deadlines, projects and bills keep us up later than we’d planned. Maybe we even burn the midnight oil to get a jump on the next morning’s tasks! Nighttime too often becomes a default slush fund for the day’s chores. Still others of us might deliberately stay up to bask (however groggily) in what seems like the only time we have to ourselves. The house is quiet, the kids/partner are asleep. The world is hushed, and the deep solitude is too much to resist.

But there’s always a price…. The next morning has us clutching our pillows in fervent denial. Cruel, callous and relentless as it is, the alarm tolls for thee and you’re suddenly reeling in regret. However much you enjoyed or appreciated the previous night’s extension, you now see the error of your ways. Your bed is suddenly the most wonderful, restful place in the world, and you couldn’t possibly tear yourself away. Snooze button it is.

When the necessities of life (or an incredible bracket-busting game) strike, it’s good to keep ye olde 80/20 Primal Principle in mind. Nonetheless, let’s give shut eye its due. I’ve done Definitive Guides on all manner of Primal priorities. It was high time, I thought, we offer the same deference to our non-waking Primal efforts.

The “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” overachiever mindset assumes our bodies aren’t doing anything useful when we’re buried beneath the covers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sleep is an incredibly active time for our bodies and brains when we undergo all manner of growth and repair processes through a dynamic biochemical orchestration. When we know the facts on sleep, we’re more likely to give it our full respect – and wholehearted Primal commitment. Let’s begin….

What’s Sleep Done For Me Lately?
Sleep is key, essential, absolutely downright necessary for our basic physiological operations – with special support for neurological performance, endocrine balance, immune system functioning, and musculoskeletal growth and repair. For one, you wouldn’t be half the man or woman you are without the physiological feats sleep achieves. I mean that both literally and figuratively, since sleep spurs the release of human growth hormone (HGH), an essential player in cellular regeneration.

Before you stay up for your favorite late night host, consider the fact that a solid night of shut eye bears all kinds of gifts. A full night of sleep will enhance your memory performance and creative problem solving skills the next day, not to mention make you a better person to be around by helping you see the positive in your interactions. Oh, but there’s more of course. A good night’s sleep will further boost your athletic performance, including speed, accuracy, mood and overall energy.

Then there’s your immune system. Hate getting sick? How about cutting your risk for the common cold and other basic illnesses? Your immune system is, in fact, most active during sleep. (So, that’s why the flu leaves you in a coma-like state…) To boot, adequate sleep makes you more resilient to daily stress, which supports your immune functioning that much more.

Finally, there’s the big picture. Solid, consistent sleep over the long-term has been linked to self-reported “successful” aging.

The Ugly World of Sleep Deprivation
Now consider the flip side. Believe it or not, you’ll die of sleep deprivation before you will starvation. Of course few people ever venture that far into the insomniatic tunnel, but the fact underscores the damage done when we skimp on sleep. When you pull that all-nighter or drag yourself through multiple months of newborn-induced sleep deprivation, you feel like crap because, well, you’re body is legitimately struggling. Every system suffers in some regard. Make no mistake: even a single hour of missed sleep takes its toll, as the research on daylight savings time shows. If you continue down the path of scarcity, you build up what experts call a sleep debt – one that the body tries desperately to repay.

In the short term, you find a full spectrum of unsavory impacts. On the cognitive side, you sacrifice all manner of memory abilities, including short-term and working memory. Over time, even long-term memory and the generation of nerve cells are impaired. Of little surprise is the impact on emotional mood and well-being. Sleep deprivation has been shown to increase the risk for conditions like depression and exacerbate pre-existing psychological illnesses. However, even a single night of sleeplessness can throw our emotional regulatory abilities out the window. Sleeplessness causes our emotional selves to revert to their more primitive roots, effectively shutting down the reasonable prefrontal cortex and putting the primally defensive amygdala in the driver’s seat. One study even linked sleep deprivation with a corresponding increase in people’s dissatisfaction with their primary relationships. (An important bit of perspective to cranky new parents…) Finally, the physical self pays a price of course. A single night of sleep loss increases systemic inflammation, and (as I shared Monday) impairs the body’s ability to handle the kind of moderate oxidative stress we deal with every day.

When you graduate to the extended – however “minor” – levels of sleep deprivation, you’ll enjoy the above experiences (magnified of course), all the while putting significant strain on many of your body’s systems, including your neurological and cardiovascular systems. One study found that skipped sleep led to a shrinking brain. Bye, bye gray matter! The heart and kidneys also take a beating as does your blood pressure. You, in fact, put yourself at continually increased risk for a whole host of lifestyle diseases, including obesity and diabetes. The logical extension of this pattern? Numerous studies link partial sleep deprivation/disruption and increased mortality risk!

Not All Sleep Is Created Equal
Although it might feel like it some days, it’s not an instantaneous plunge into cataleptic nothingness. Sleep fills a progressive spectrum of sorts. The process and pattern of sleep reveals the complex, dynamic experience it is. We likely all recall the REM and non-REM designations gestured to in our middle school health classes. The picture is a little more complicated than that, but those categories represent the bones of it. Essentially, the body moves through three stages of non-REM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep that are called N1, N2 and N3, proceeding eventually to REM sleep (typically with a N1, N2, N3, N2, REM pattern) and then back again through numerous cycles throughout the night.

Phase N1 represents the initial switch in brain wave frequency. It’s the stage in which you feel like you’re mostly under but can still see the light above the water. It characterizes most surreptitious office naps that people think no one will notice – until your head slips off the hand that was holding it up. (Hmmm…forgot about that N1 relaxation of muscle tone, I guess.) Most notably, it’s the stage in which you scare the crap out of yourself and your spouse with those annoying sudden jerks. From there, N2 takes you down enough that any residual awareness of your environment is gone. Finally, N3 takes you into deep, slow wave sleep. Those of you who walk or talk in your sleep tend to begin performing now.

If you recall from your textbooks, REM sleep hosts most of our dreaming, particularly those memorable bits in the early morning that confound us for hours throughout the day. Although muscle tone was progressively relaxed in non-REM sleep, it’s generally non-existent in the REM stage.

REM sleep constitutes about a quarter of the typical adult’s sleep. The N2 stage of non-REM sleep makes up an additional half. The remaining quarter is split between the initial N1 stage and the deep sleep of N3. We experience most of our deep sleep early on in the night – hence the instructive proverb about going to bed early.

What moves us to sleep in the first place, however, is our circadian rhythm, the physiological clock responsible for putting in motion temperature changes and hormonal releases associated with sleep and waking. As we approach sleep, our body reaches its highest concentration of adenosine, a sleep promoting neurotransmitter. Simultaneously, the body begins to kick out melatonin and begins reducing our core temperature, which will hit its lowest point in the second half of our normal sleep schedule – around the time when melatonin will incidentally be at its highest. Our best sleep, not surprisingly, results from staying on consistent course with our natural circadian rhythm and – if we nap – not napping too late in the day. Speaking of which…

Closed for Siesta
I’m a big believer in naps, and I consider them one of the most useful (and pleasurable) of the PB sensible vices. Research supports the benefit of inducing the relaxation response each day, and one study showed that even the anticipation of a nap can lower your blood pressure. Following a truly bad night, naps can help us recharge our cognitive and physical stores. Longer naptimes following sleepless nights tend to include more REM sleep for better restoration. Although some “authorities” might balk at the healthiness of daily napping, I think long-time tradition (as well as the natural circadian rhythm) shoots that one down sufficiently. Problems can arise when naps signify symptoms for an otherwise unhealthy lifestyle or when they become a consistent, necessary stand-in for good sleep quality and adequate hours each night. Nonetheless, for those with young babies or swing/night shift jobs, sometimes the best Primal choice we can make is doing the best we can with the reality in front of us. Naps can be part of that effort.

Our Need for Sleep
Of course the need for sleep varies by individual. Though most of us fall into the pot of the seven-eight hour average, others of us genuinely can’t get by without nine or ten. A few lucky ones among us hit our optimum with only six or so hours of shut eye. (These folks are honest to goodness mutants, as science has confirmed.)

However, the majority of our sleep differentiation is determined by age. Babies, no surprises here, need the most (however patchy it is), while adults require the least. The notion that older adults need less sleep is actually hogwash. Although sleep patterns become more fragmented as we age, we still need the same good old average. Sleep still fosters critical hormonal secretion (like growth hormone) necessary for healthy aging. One study in particular linked solid sleep with higher levels of testosterone in older men.

Children, however, are especially susceptible to the ravages of sleep deprivation. Sleep is essential for babies to learn and retain new information. Sleep deficits have been long been linked to an increased risk of ADHD, depression and behavioral problems in children.

Getting Some Good Primal Sleep
In Grok’s world, of course, there were no alarms, no clocks, no trains to catch or appointments to make. Likewise, there were no lamps or computers, T.V.s, smart phones and all the other technological gadgetry that tests our circadian rhythm and tempts us to stay up instead of hit the sheets. Although Grok and his tribe didn’t turn in the second the sun fell below the horizon, they undoubtedly slid into a hunkered down, lower key mode. On a typical night, the darkness – even with a central fire or bright moon – would’ve been enough to impose a quieter sense of consciousness. The stars, the flames would’ve been enough to inspire calm, maybe meditative stillness if not sleep. What would our experience of night be – how rested and composed might we feel – if we spent ten to twelve hours in relative darkness?

Although I suspect most of us have at least several hours to trudge through before we can call it a night, maybe some of you are already planning a clandestine nap this afternoon. (There’s always our Primally approved plan for selling your boss on the siesta idea….) Looking forward to sleep is the first step to taking back bedtime, I’d say. Not only is it an essential investment for your health, it’s one of life’s best luxuries. You wake up looking better and feeling like a million bucks. How much better can it get? Now take the money you’ll save on extra coffee and buy yourself a nice set of sheets or the pillow you’ve always wanted.

March 25, 2010 | Filed Under Nutrition, W.O.D. | 42 Comments

03.17.10

MURPH

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats “Cindy” style (20 Rounds of 5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups, 15 Squats). Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it. There is a 50 minute time cap on this WOD today! If you don’t feel you can complete Murph within the allotted time, then choose one of the following options:

Mini-Murph
800M Run
50 Pull Ups
100 Push Ups
150 Squats
800M Run

Baby Murph
400M Run
25 Pull Ups
50 Push Ups
75 Squats
400M Run

In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. If you don’t know the story of Murph, I highly recommend you take a minute to read the link, as well as reading the book, Lone Survivor. When you think you are suffering through this WOD…remember what he went through.

This workout was one of Mike’s favorites and he’d named it “Body Armor”. From here on it will be referred to as “Murph” in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Happy birthday to YOU! Happy birthday dear James! Happy birthday to YOU!

SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE

Just a reminder there will be no 10AM on Saturday…there will be a 9:30AM and 10:30AM WOD.

PALEO CAN MAKE YOU FAT

WHAT? Did you read that correctly? Yup, you did…eating Paleo can absolutely make you fat. Liz and I were chatting about this a month or so ago…it was my concern that most people would start to look at gluten free foods or “paleo friendly” foods and think they were good for you just because they were “Paleo.” Much like the fat-free fad foods of the 90’s did us in back then. Check out this article from Primal Mama Cooks…

Yes, it’s true. Paleo eating can make you fat. That’s a pretty bold statement, you say? Yes, I would agree. But alas my friends, it is true.

It’s not what we eat. It’s not the lean meats, veggies, nuts and seeds and fruit. It’s not the prescribed exercise that goes along with it. If we examine the way the caveman ate, there is virtually no way he could have gotten fat. It’s how we eat today. What has happened is that we have taken modern eating into consideration and thrown portion size out the window. There is a misnomer that goes along with “unweighed and unmeasured” paleo eating. And that is the idea that we can eat all day long like gluttons and we will come out on the other side unscathed.

I will concede to the fact that it is very hard to overeat protein. It’s even hard to overeat vegetables. It’s a little easier to overeat fruit and incredibly easy to overeat nuts and dried fruit. Now try this one on for size…

I just made the most delicious muffins on the planet. So let’s examine the ingredients of said muffins. There’s almond flour, bananas, dates, coconut oil, walnuts, spices, eggs, carrot, etc. All the ingredients qualify as paleo. All of the ingredients are healthy and nutritious. There’s another common denominator here: All of the ingredients (except the carrot) are highly caloric. I don’t know how many actual calories these muffins have in them but I can imagine it’s off the charts. And then it gets even better. I dare you to make these and then just eat one. It’s impossible. They are so good they take your breath away at first bite. I have to admit, I knew this going in because I had a bite of my friend Marc’s at sectionals and they have been on my mind ever since. I broke down and made them this morning. I inhaled two of them in less than 90 seconds. When I get the courage to re-enter the kitchen I’m going to bag them up and bury them in the backyard. Talk about dangerous!

So what’s my point in all this? Just because something is made with paleo ingredients and it beats it’s conventional counterpart (the mega-muffin or bagel) in nutrition and quality does not give us the right to eat it with abandon. We have to use common sense and know our calorie contents.

A long while back I posted about Taco Bell and how they are duping us into believing you can have a lean body by eating their “diet” menu. The girl on the commercial had cut her calories down to 1200 per day. My argument was that anyone could loose weight on that little amount of calories (but, ooohhhh the rebound. Get ready to gain it all back plus some). The inverse is true of paleo eating. If we don’t stay conscious while we are shoveling food in, even if it is paleo, we will gain weight.

So here is my plea. To be successful on paleo, you don’t have to weigh and measure. But you DO have to be conscious. Just because the ingredients are paleo does not give us the right to eat unlimited quantities of food. If you want to make these muffins, go for it. But have one as an occasional treat. Try to pair it with some protein. I guarantee if you eat these day after day, they will blunt your results.

March 17, 2010 | Filed Under Nutrition, W.O.D. | 64 Comments

03.04.10

10 ROUNDS FOR TIME:

3 Front Squats at body weight
5 Ring Dips
7 Knees To Elbows

You must be able to clean the weight up for the front squat!

WELCOME TO…

Chelsey! We are super excited to have you at CrossFit Peachtree!

WEEKEND SCHEDULE REMINDER!

NO Noon class on Friday
NO 9:30AM class on Saturday
Only 10AM and Open Gym on Saturday

Also, the blog post will be late tomorrow…we are going to be on the west siiiiide.

EASY MEXI-CHICKEN

We had this for dinner last night…super easy, super yummy! I’ll be posting it on the CFPT Nutrition blog soon….

Ingredients
1 jar gluten free, sugar free salsa, I use Enrico’s
2 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless), cut into quarters
1 can corn (this is not Paleo and is optional)

Throw everything in a crock pot and cook for about 6+ hours on low. Remove the chicken and shred…put it back into the crock pot and stir up.

Serve over bed of spinach and top with diced avocado.

Tastes kind of like nachos without the chips!

Disclaimer: I also added black beans into the crock pot. If you are just starting on Paleo, I do not recommend that. They don’t bother us and we don’t eat them often, so I went a little crazy .

March 4, 2010 | Filed Under Nutrition, W.O.D. | 48 Comments

02.23.10

FIVE ROUNDS FOR TIME:

3 Power Snatch 95# / 65#
15 Overhead Squats 95# / 65#
Run 400M

Power Snatch [wmv][mov]

Overhead Squatting Safely [wmv][mov]

POST WOD REFUEL

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

Female:
above 16% – 30g prot/20g carb
12-14% – 30g prot/30g carb
below 12% – 30g prot/40g carb

CONGRATULATIONS SUNG!

A week or so late…but congrats on getting your first muscle up!

FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS GET FAT!

Pool season is quickly approaching…and, while we know we are all doing CrossFit to get healthier and fitter…let’s face it, we all want to look good in a bikini! We want to help you and your friend out by launching: Friends don’t let friends get fat! For the month of March we are offering $50 off your next month if you bring in a friend and they join. Help your friends look good naked, help yourself by saving some coin (to be used during pool season for Paleo margies) and help CFPT continue to build a kick ass community with people you dig! Please have them contact us to set up an appointment for their intro session.

FOUR DAYS…

Until Sectionals! This is just a reminder that we will only have a 9:30AM class on Saturday and to get out there and support your fellow CFPTers: Taylor, Khaki, Becka and James as they compete individually and teams: GTL and Team SweatHugs as they compete in the affiliate rumble!

EXPOSING THE CHOLESTEROL CON

Article courtesy of Free the Animal

This is just a rather quick hit & run with some excerpts and commentary that I wanted to post because it’s nice to finally see something in the mainstream news that echos what I and my fellow bloggers have been saying all along, for nearly three years in my case. From MSNBC:

Bad cholesterol: It’s not what you think

Yea, no shit. And it never was. And there was little justification to ever create the “tidy narrative” in the first place.

For decades, a tidy narrative about the relationship between LDL cholesterol and heart disease has affected everything from the food we eat to the drugs we take to the test results we track and the worries we harbor. This oversimplified view of cholesterol — that all LDL is the same and that all LDL is bad — has enabled the adoption of an accompanying oversimplified dietary belief, that all saturated-fat consumption raises your risk of heart disease.

Oversimplified view of cholesterol –> oversimplified view of diet –> complex and dangerous drugs –> obesity –> diabetes –> more complex and dangerous drugs –> lots of drug company profits –> lots of assholes still out needlessly scaring people to death.

The LDL hypothesis has also encouraged many of us to swallow the most-prescribed class of drugs in recent history. Americans spent more than $14 billion on LDL-lowering medications in 2008. Whether that money came out of their own pockets — straight up, or through ever-escalating co-pays — or out of the hemorrhaging U.S. health-insurance system known as Medicare, it’s a huge expenditure. Twenty-four million Americans take statins, and the latest health directives suggest that those numbers should be higher. And why stop at grown-ups? Some pediatricians want to start feeding Lipitor (and the like) to kids.

$14 billion for something with tons of side-effects and of dubious, nonexistent value for all but a small subset: men under 65 who’ve already had a coronary event. Sure, if you’ve had a heart attack already, go right ahead and “trust your heart to Lipitor.”

LDL comes in four basic forms: a big, fluffy form known as large LDL, and three increasingly dense forms known as medium, small, and very small LDL. A diet high in saturated fat mainly boosts the numbers of large-LDL particles, while a low-fat diet high in carbohydrates propagates the smaller forms. The big, fluffy particles are largely benign, while the small, dense versions keep lipid-science researchers awake at night.

But here’s the problem: The typical LDL test doesn’t distinguish between large and small LDL particles — it can’t even spot the difference. And people can have mostly large LDL or mostly small LDL in their overall LDL, depending upon a host of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Your own personal mix may make all the difference between living to a heart-healthy old age and becoming a Monday-morning casualty at your desk.

Right. And Americans are spending $14 billion per year on statins and it’s based on irrational, uncorrelated, unproven associations with a measurement technology that “can’t even spot the difference.” I’ll bet the drug companies are all over getting this new measurement technology into wide usage. Yea, right.

Now, to heap even more outrage on the deal, how long back has it been since it was known that the small-dense sub-particles associated and reasonably predicted heart disease risk? 1976, almost 35 years ago. Dr Krauss recounts:

The heart-disease community was not impressed. “It took me 4 years to publish that paper,” he says, recalling his early work on sub-particles in the late 1970s. “That’s beginning to tell you some of the obstacles I was going to face.”

Big surprise, eh? There’s more.

But during experiments, Dr. Krauss discovered that while a diet high in saturated fat from dairy products would indeed make your LDL levels rise, “saturated fat intake results in an increase of larger LDL rather than smaller LDL particles,” as he wrote in an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition review he co-authored in 2006. A diet heavy in full-fat cheese and butter — but not overloaded in calories — triggered the relatively harmless health profile described as pattern A. [...]

Not only is dairy fat unlikely to increase heart-disease risk, Dr. Krauss and others have learned, but reducing saturated fat in a way that increases carbohydrates in a diet can shift a person’s LDL profile from safe to dangerous. That’s pretty much what happens whenever some well-meaning person with “high LDL” starts eating “low-fat” frozen dinners filled out with corn-derived additives, all the while engaging in the customary ravaging of a basket filled with dinner rolls.

February 23, 2010 | Filed Under Nutrition, W.O.D. | 45 Comments