Posts from — January 2010

If I weren’t working next Sunday I would be at Tamalpias CrossFit for their Grand Opening party. Here’s what’s on tap…

Schedule of events:

9:00 Doors Open/Sign in

9:30-Kelly Starrett Mobility and Recovery Lecture
Coach Kelly Starrett founded San Francisco CrossFit in 2005 with his wife Juliet. Kelly received his Doctor of Physical Therapy in 2007 from Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, CA. Before starting his own physical therapy practice at San Francisco CrossFit, he practiced performance-based physical therapy at the world-renowned Stone Clinic.

11:00 More Coffee, Treats, Giveaways:  T-shirts, FREE Memberships  (First 10 new-to-CrossFit to sign in) and Discounted Memberships,  1 hour personal training session to the first 10 current TCF members to

11:45- Nationally Ranked Freddie & Niki Myles Olympic Weight Lifting Team Demonstration
Freddie Myles coaches a strong, competitive Olympic Weightlifting team. His team is comprised of high level, nationally ranked athletes as well as those who are new to the sport. Freddie and his team are please to demonstrate their skills and partner with Tamalpais CrossFit.  Olympic Weightlifting is an integral part of CrossFit.  This demonstration is a wonderful opportunity to watch elite lifters firsthand.  Freddie is also the Olympic lifting coach that trains the coaches at Tamalpais CrossFit.

12:45 Last treats and home in time for the big game with a game plan of your own for your new fitness program at Tamalpais CrossFit!!!

Are you an experienced CrossFitter? If your Fran time is under 8 min., come dressed for a workout! Bring your “A” game as prizes will be awarded!!

People pay good money to listen to Kelly Starrett talk.

I would pay good money to watch a Freddie & Niki throwdown.

Take advantage.

There’s a tendency to get lax with air squats. Some people view air squats as something unnecessary of their full attention. They let the chest fall, the knees come in, the heels come up…who cares, it’s not weighted.

DEAD WRONG

The Air Squat is your foundation. Nearly every movement you execute is a derivative of the Air Squat. Treat this exercise with the respect it deserves. Fight for a perfect Air Squat every time and you will be rewarded with PR’s and compliments on form. Not to mention a longer, safer athletic career.

Great video that shows the differences between the Press, Push Press, and Push Jerk.

Crossfit is comprised of functional movements. What qualifies a movement to be considered “functional” is it’s real world application. The deadlift is damn functional, but why it is may not be your first guess. Yes, we do pick up stuff from the ground on a daily basis and it would behoove you to know how to pick these things up correctly. But the deadlift is functional for another, even more primal, reason. The deadlift is second to none in it’s ability to develope core strength. With every properly executed functional movement we perform in CrossFit and in life being “core to extremity”, having a solid core is paramount. Your core strength is your foundation. Deadlifting is like pouring concrete.

Mark Rippetoe - purveyor of the deadlift.

Rippetoe on the Deadlift – “… it’s very hard to imagine a more useful application of strength than picking heavy sh!t up off the ground. “

Sometimes we get a tad carried away with competition. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone. In fact, it probably helped you accelerate past what you would have accomplished working out alone. But there’s been some unhealthy competition brewing for awhile now.

Throwing form by the wayside and risking injury in order to attain the unattainable is about as smart as toasting bagels in the bathtub. Not only are you risking the longevity of your athletic career, you’re also severely impeding your progress by making no gain in the form column.

Do you ever wonder why a 5′ tall, 145lb  Olympian can put 2.5x their body weight overhead? Yes, they’re strong, but the answer lies in their form. When you see great form, you see efficiency. The people who take the time to become efficient with their lifting, by developing great form, are the ones that go on to drop jaws.

Don’t be the guy or girl catching a clean with heels in the air, bar 12″ back of mid line, body in a “C” position in order to beat your buddy, or keep up with the group. You’re robbing yourself of any long term progress for the sake of a number that’s going to be erased the next morning. Stupid.

Keep em’ legit.

A clip from the documentary, Fat Head:

Ready to start eating a diet rich in protein, vegetables, and good fat, but don’t know how you’re going to give up that bread, pasta, and dessert? The Food Renegade has an excellent post on taking the leap. Read up.

For those of you in our midst that have gone “primal” or “paleo,” what advice do you have for those who are thinking about doing so? And what changes to your body, feelings, or training have you noticed as a result?

At CFSR, class always begins with a general warm up – like a run or row – which is to get your blood flowing to your muscles and literally get you warmer. Following the general warm up is dynamic stretching. The dynamic stretches we prescribe are based on what the exercises are in that day’s WOD. We want you to move through a range of motion and hopefully increase that range through the stretching exercise, preparing your muscles and joints for the workout ahead.

We discourage static stretching before a workout. Why? Here’s a quick piece written for the general public that explains. Static stretching actually decreases the strength of a muscle in the immediate period after stretching. As the article notes:

Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. – Stretching: The Truth, NY Times Magazine

Static stretching is, however, appropriate after a workout. With a good cool down and stretching period post-WOD, you’ll have less soreness and be more limber when you walk in for class the next day.

If you shudder in horror when you think of brussels sprouts, then you were probably served them boiled. They had an olive-colored tone to them, right? That’s a shame.

Brussels sprouts are actually delicious when not boiled. Members of the brassica family, they’re related to broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and collards. Even though we can grow these uber-healthy greens year round, right now during winter is their high time when they’re sweetest.

Here’s two super simple ways to cook up some brussels:

Sliced and Sauteed Brussels with Bacon
Easy-peasy: Cut up some bacon and start cooking it in a pan. Meanwhile, cut the little brussels into slices, maybe 3-4 slices per head. Before the bacon gets crispy, toss the brussels slices in the pan and saute on medium heat until the brussels are caramelized. They should be a nice vibrant green with plenty of browned sweet spots. Serve immediately.

The variations are endless: You could throw some shallots into the pan before the brussels. Or toss in a handful of dried cranberries and walnuts. A splash of a nice vinegar? Do whachyalike.

Roasted Brussels
Roasting has to be the easiest way ever to make vegetables yummy. So little labor, and so much flavor. Roasting is a particularly good method for winter veggies: cauliflower, carrots, winter squashes (pumpkin, butternut, acorn, etc.), beets, and of course, brussels.

All you have to do is cut up your vegetable into bite-sized pieces. Put in a bowl and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Lay out on baking sheet and roast at about 400-450 degrees until browned and caramelized. Yum. The only trick to this is to spread the bites out on the baking pan, because if they’re too close they’ll just steam instead of brown. If you’re making a lot, do it in batches so you have enough room.

Remove and discard the hard base of each brussels sprout, then slice the heads in half.

Place in a bowl and toss brussels halves with olive oil, salt, and pepper. You could add any other herbs or spices you want here. Red pepper flakes?

Spread out on a baking sheet, flat side down. Don't crowd them.

Roast at about 450 degrees until browned on the flat side. Won't take long.

Serve with meat and more veggies. Or just snack on them alone! Yum.

Eating carb-heavy meals is about as American as Bruce Springsteen singing about Pink Cadillacs. Unfortunately, so is obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. So I offer you this, the sanest way to eat your mashed potato sandwich: do it post workout.

During a workout you’re expending muscle glycogen. Eating a carb heavy meal after a workout restores this depleted glycogen. You want to include simple starches (potato) because they turn into glucose almost instantly, whereas fructose (fruit) must be metabolized by the liver before being released back into the bloodstream as usable glucose (this takes awhile).

The best reason to eat these things after a workout is you’ll be taking advantage of an inordinately high insulin sensitivity. High insulin levels, hyperinsulinism, has been positively linked to the above mentioned American past times. The less insulin floating around in your circulatory system, the better.

The window for taking advantage of this heightened sensitivity to insulin is small. Most often, I hear and read that within 30 minutes post workout is gold, within 1 hour post workout is silver, and nobody wants the bronze. A guy I like said you have 3 hours, but  that sounds a bit much. The bottom line: the closer in proximity to the end of your workout, the better.

sweet potato fries

How much carb you eat post workout should be dictated by two things. First, the length and intensity of the workout. No, you should not eat the same amount of food for a 500M row that you would eat for Cindy. Gauge the amount of work you expended and dose carb in relation. Second, your percentage of body fat should be a barometer for how much carb you put in yourself. If you’re already a big person, and you put a load of carbs back in your body post-workout, you’re nixing the weight loss benefits of exercise that you just worked for. Like I said though, if you must have it, do it post workout.

We always recommend that you choose wisely when picking the vessel for which your macro-nutrients are delivered. Both twinkies and sweet potato are predominately carbohydrate. One will make you go the way of the average Jerry Springer guest, the other will not. Please realize that it’s much more important than just macro-nutrient content.

During workouts, you’re also making microscopic tears in your muscle fibers, which creates a need for protein. Eat the carbohydrates with some protein, preferably the kind with “souls and faces”, to repair the muscle damage you’ve made.

like this guy

Hard…

Nicole 15X BW OHS

Shaping up…