Linkage

We talk about stress and recovery all the time here at CFSR, and the folks at Whole 9 have a written a great piece on it: “Are Your Recovering, or Are You Just Resting?” Look, exercise is a stressor. The proper type and amount of it is good for you if your sleep, diet and other lifestyle factors (kids? stressful job?) are in line to support your recovery and adaptation to it. Ah, this is a big topic. Read the article, and bring us your questions. We’re here to help you get and stay healthy.

3 quotes from the article, to get you warmed up:

“An appropriate “dose” of physical stress provokes a positive adaptation in your body (you get fitter), but dosing progressively larger and larger amounts of exercise can be seriously detrimental to your health.”

“Merely taking a day or two off from exercise when you’re feeling overtrained (or All Banged Up) is, to put it bluntly, the slacker’s version of “recovery.” ”

“You don’t get fitter when you are training. Whether you CrossFit, or Zumba, or swing kettlebells, or run marathons… you get fitter when you are recovering from that training.” [Our friend Andy from the Sebastopol days used to call recovery days his "Grow Days" - thanks for that concept Andy!]

Please read the article. This is really important stuff for any of you training here, whether your goal is athletic performance, weight loss or general health.

For additional reading, check out “9 Things to Do When You’re All Banged Up“. One of them? Eat more vegetables!

We know that many CrossFit affiliates take pride in posting pictures of hands torn up from kipping pull ups or toes-to-bar. We’re not one of them, and here’s why: IT IS NOT “COOL” TO HAVE CHUNKS OF OUR SKIN RIPPED FROM OUR HANDS. Click on that link to read an older but excellent post from FitBomb (a CrossFitter in the South Bay and husband to Nom Nom Paleo) on caring for your hands and preventing tearing. Really, torn hands are no fun and you can usually prevent them. Read the blog post, and we can show you in person how to tape your hands when necessary.

No doubt you’ve seen or heard the recent health and nutrition headlines in the mainstream: red meat will kill you! Or will it? Check out “Will Eating Red Meat Kill You?” by super-smart, science-y, and darned good writer Denise Minger on Mark’s Daily Apple to understand the research flaws behind the headlines. While you’re at it, feel free to read some of Minger’s critiques of the China Study or the recent film “Forks and Knives”.

Gary Taubes, author of “What If It’s All Been A Big Fat Lie”, Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It tackles the same red-meat-will-kill-you topic here.

We already linked to this on our facebook page, but it warrants relinking here, and in fact, should go in a permanent list of must-reads for anyone starting to train at our gym: 5 Reasons to Break Up with Your Scale. Go read it. If you’ve already read it, go read it again. Bottom line: forget what the scale says (better yet, throw it away) and instead pay attention to how you look, feel and perform.

Last but not least, an article that came via email newsletter (which you can sign up for here) from our newest favorite health blog writer, Chris Kresser. Kresser is an acupuncturist and functional medicine practitioner in the East Bay, and writes and podcasts really smart, worthwhile stuff. Manage Your Stress is just one of many gems of empowering information he’s putting out. Do check out his website.