CrossFit Road Trip ~ WOD 6, Basement Tabata

Ok, we are south of the Mason Dixon Line so it is impossible to find an Box that is open on a Sunday. No problem - to the basement we go! This was cool since we did not have to worry about getting the address correct this time. ;) We are finishing up our time at Jamie's mom and dad's house, and the family was here for Christmas which meant Jamie's brother's fiancee was here and she joined in on the Tabata fun.

Tabata Air Squat

Jamie (Jumping) - 3

15, 15, 15, 3, 12, 10, 10, 8

Amanda (Jumped first 3 Rounds) - 11

14, 14, 13, 12, 12, 13, 11, 12

Jo Ellen - 10

16, 14, 14, 10, 10, 12, 11, 13

Tabata Push Ups

Jamie (No Knees) - 5

10, 10, 10, 9, 8, 5, 8, 8

Amanda (Knees) - 6

12, 11, 9, 7, 7, 6, 7, 6

Jo Ellen (Knees)- 10

17, 17, 14, 12, 11, 10, 10, 13

Tabata Sit Ups

Jamie - 7

10, 9, 10, 9, 8, 7, 10, 10

Amanda - 8

10, 8, 9, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9

Jo Ellen - 9

11, 9, 10, 9, 9, 10, 10, 9

We got Jamie's brother to keep Tabata score for us and Jamie's sister to snap photos and track time for us. The coolest cheering section ever, 'cause Molly was there, too!

6th workout done, 2 to go!

Once the fun was over we let Molly show off her pretty form.

Lessons Learned: You can workout any where!

CrossFit Road Trip ~ WOD 5, What's Hurting in Huntsville?

After we finished our work in Clarksville, TN we went to Huntsville, AL to work out at CrossFit Huntsville, just to see if we could indeed be 'Stronger Than Yesterday', and We Are!

They were working out the Squat, doing the WOD from the CrossFit Main Site that we could have done in Clarksville when we did 300 instead.

This place is awesome and huge and full of amazing coaching. Josh and Jake took the 4:30 crew through some Form instruction and then put us to work at the racks.

Overhead Squat

Jamie

35, 45, 55, 65, 70

Amanda

35, 45

We got some cool feedback on how to pick our hand placement for

these. Thanks Josh!

Front Squat

Jamie - Personal Best

55, 75, 85, 95

Amanda

35, 55, 55, 65, 75

Elbows in is much harder than it looks, knees out is even harder!

Back Squat

Jamie

85, 95

Amanda - first time back squatter!

65, 78, 85

These are so much easier without gym shoes on. Thanks Jake!

Casey was kind enough to share her rack with us, and she picks up some heavy stuff! Nice work, and best wishes in Germany.

Lessons Learned: Knees out and keep your weight on the outside of your feet, and keep your elbows in, high, and tight. Gym shoes are sometimes nothing more than a fashion statement. The heel heigth in a typical running shoe jacks up your form more than you realize.

Off to BHam to see the family, and Christmas. We will be doing the CrossFit 180 Christmas WOD: Open Presents, For Time!

CrossFit Road Trip ~ WOD 4, It's like going home

Amanda and I could not have slept better on Thursday night. CrossFit Road Trips cure insomnia. We got ourselves up and at 'em early so we could head west young man. We were aiming for a workout at CrossFit Clarksville, and it turned out to be just like home – literally. Clarksville is the rock that Jamie crawled out from under mmmfffmmmfff years ago. And, for those keeping track of the geographical mishaps, yes we had issues again. And, we handled it, again. Practice, practice, practice.

Rick and Dymphna run a CrossFit Affiliate out of their home. They do an outstanding job of welcoming in crazies like us, and they even had Natalie take some photos of our workout.

They use programming off of Main Site, so Amanda and I chose to do the 180 WOD.

300

10 Wallball, 10 lb

10 KB, 25 lb

10 Box, 12 inch steps

10 Rounds for time.....

Jamie finished in 14:5? and Amanda took just one minute longer. Here is what is so way cool about this. We were so tired and sore and mentally beat down that the idea of doing this was completely outside our minds. But, we did it. Natalie kept score for us – thanks doll! She cheered, and coached, and snapped oodles of pics. Quite the helpful hero. There was another Clarskville CrossFitter who also took some pictures. We have snaked them in through out this post, but did not identify which camera took each shot... sorry y'all.

Once the horror had come to an end, Amanda landed flat on her back and caught a most lovely sweat angel.

Lessons Learned: Home gyms rock! The atmosphere was totally different. The level of intensity is truly your own. No big group to provide engery to feed off of - you are on your own to muddle through and finish the job.

Then we jumped back in the car, and headed south to 'Bama Baby! How much is Huntsville gonna hurt? Bring it!

CrossFit Road Trip ~ WOD 3, Where’s Waldo? I mean, where is CrossFit?

Yeah, the driving directions continue to challenge us. We managed to get to a gym for our evening work out, waltz in and ask for Kate. Umm… Kate? Ha! Wrong gym. But, the place we landed at was very gracious.

Polo Lopez and Carissa Boone welcomed Amanda and I into their Box, and Polo got his crew working on form right away. The focus for the night was on Shoulder Press, Push Press, and Push Jerk. View a video HERE for all three movements.

The goal was to get your personal best in 3 attempts.

Shoulder Press
Jamie got 75 pounds which was a Personal Best. It is amazing what improved form can bring out.
Amanda got 55 pounds which was also a Personal Best!

Push Press
Jamie got 90 pounds which was a Personal Best.
Amanda got 65 pounds over her head. Yes, another Personal Best.

Push Jerk – We had run out of time before we tackled this one. Both Amanda and I need to get our form down on this one before we go crazy with pounds. Next time we will get you, you jerk.

Lessons Learned: Hmm… What is up with all these Personal Best’s? I am certain that what we are seeing is not just rookie numbers sky rocketing because we are new. Instead, I think that the differences is that we are so new to the CrossFit environment and each experience give us different perspectives.

This trip has been invaluable so far. Woot!

And as for the gym that we missed, it was goCrossFit. I am having a hard time finding their website, how ironic. :)

WOD 4, Friday morning. I better double check all of the details and addresses and phone numbers before we go.

CrossFit Road Trip ~ WOD 2, The Exodus (The Second beginning of the Road Trip)

This road trippin’ stuff is cool, but sort of complicated. The morning round up did not go as quickly as we had thought it would. So, mad dash south to Louisville started us out feeling a bit on edge.

But, as most things do when you decide to handle it with grace, it turned out just fine.

IronBody Fitness @ Louisville, Kentucky

This is an awesome place to work out. Dave Randolph and his Iron Body Fitness facility are currently a CrossFit Affiliate but focuses his peeps on Kettle Bell work. When we arrived we watched Jeanette work the bells with perfect form. Then, Dave taught us how to do it just like Jeanette. He walked us through push ups – who knew we had some opportunities for improvement on such a primary movement. Once we got warmed up and shook out the stiffness from last night’s WOD, he put us to work.

Kettle Bell Swings, two hand and one handed:
Wow! Jamie lets her bell fall too low rather than back on the down swing. Amanda swings her bell too high up on the up swing.
Ok, fine. Our KB Swings were broken. Thanks Dave.

Goblet Squat
Jamie is knock kneed. What a hoot, he had us all tied in bands to ensure our focus was on proper form.

Kettle Bell Press

Keep it tight, keep it close – just like those you love. Then, send it straight up and don’t go forward.

One Legged Dead Lift
When doing a one legged dead lift, you can pick up more than 50% of your traditional dead lift weight total. However, Jamie has no skills at balancing and had a hard time working through the movement even without any weights. Amanda has right side balance, but could not find any on her left side. Hmmm… we all knew she was a bit off.

Dave even talked us through some squat form and running concepts. While we did not get in a traditional work out, we spent an hour working up a great sweat and enjoyed some amazing feedback from a KB Certified expert.

Lessons Learned: It is great to get feedback from fresh eyes, and everyone has a different perspective that should be considered.

Dave – Big ups to your gym, the focus on form, and the hospitality! We will spread the word that your spot is a great place to stop!

And, then it was off to the hotel. Yeah, and then there was that one issue with the directions. The biggest problem was that Jamie used the wrong address when printing out maps for the trip. Amanda is generally directionally challenged. We did find the hotel listed in the directions. But, it is not the hotel that had the reservation. Cell Phone Navigation to the rescue. Along the way we stopped for gasoline and a car wash. This is not something that is normally blog worthy, but this time it was.

Drive in.
Hear the beep and see the Red Lights. STOP.
Apply Brake.

Put car in Park.
See soap hit the car.
Wait.
A long time.
Hmm.

Go into the gas station, request another wash. Approved.
Drive in.
Hear the beep and see the Red Lights. STOP.
Apply Brake.

Put car in Park.

Apply Emergency Brake.
See soap hit the car.
Wait.
A long time.
Hmm.

Ok. Let’s do it different this time.
Get out of the car, run around the building twice, jump up and down on one foot, stand on our heads, all while singing ‘Yankee Doodle Dandee’.

Hear the beep and see the Red Lights. STOP. Apply Brake.
Put car in Park.
Apply Emergency Brake.

See soap hit the car.

And then rinse water, too.

Yes!

We managed to find the neighborhood that tonight’s workout facility is in. We are building our nests in our Nashville hotel. Yes, the one that was expecting us. Ahh!

WOD 3, T – 1 hour and 50 minutes and its gonna be DEAD LIFTS!

Note to embedded link viewers: The links do not do a good enough job of explaining the finer points we learned today, but we hope you get the general idea.

CrossFit Road Trip ~ WOD 1, The Genesis

It. Is. On.

CrossFit 180 @ Lebanon Sports and Fitness

WOD 1, Done.
Let's talk about the workout first, because it warrants its own 1o minutes of fame. April led the 180 crew tonight, and that always means that your legs will be dead when you have finished your pain fest.

1 min each of:

jumping air squats

Med Ball V-ups, or crunches if your name is Jamie

Goblet Squat with a 35 pound Kettle Bell, or 25 if your name is Amanda

Burpees

Weighted walking lunges with 25 pounds overhead, or 10 pounds if your name is Jamie

Rest 1 Min

FIVE ROUNDS

Keeping track of total number of reps per round

**last round 2 min rest before it starts...Beat your best round**

Jamie's numbers, per round:

100
100
100
100
112

Amanda got 95 on her first round but could no longer count and workout at the same time after Round 1. Suffice it to say, if you cannot count, you are working hard enough.

So, here is the thing. Some parts of this trip are gonna to suck on an epic level. Neither Amanda nor Jamie is really ready for the physical challenge that this is. Wait, yes we are. We are ready because we CrossFit. We are ready because we decided we are. CrossFit is amazing in a lot of ways. One of the coolest things about it is the mental strength you gain. Wonder how much of that we have? Stay tuned! It will be interesting to see what Revelations we stumble onto along the way...

If you think you CAN, or you think you CAN'T, you ARE RIGHT. And, you can’t do it if you don’t even try. In the words of 'The Great One' (yes a tribute to THE famous Candian hockey Player, Wayne Gretsky), "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Tomorrow the adventure includes a 10 am workout in Louisville, KY and then a 6 pm workout in Nashville, TN. We will post more pics and links as time permits.

The coolers are packed, and the beds are turned down. As if we could actually sleep - we are too excited! Please post questions and comments, we will respond ASAP! Provided our arms have ceased shaking.... Links are embedded with exercise demos for those not in the know.

I think this might hurt a little tomorrow… Oh, who am I kidding. I know its gonna hurt! I am ok with that. Big sweaty hugs to you all!

100 Days of Burpees, 2009 - 2010 Challenge

The name of the Challenge did not do it justice. This was NOT 100 days of Burpees. Yes, we did Burpees regularly, and we did ladder up from 1 through to 100. Yes, we did accomplich 5050 Burpees in 100 days. But still, that really does not begin to describe it for me.

For me, it was a Challenge on a whole different level. I started the Challenge and managed to convince a few victims to get in on it with me. Some of those people stuck with it, but most gave up on it around day 35. I hear ya, it was tough! The commitment to doing them in the first place was hard, but then to stay in when you needed a mental break from the commitment was tough. It meant doing Burpees on New Year’s Day, which is not something I would normally have any interest in. But, this year, I would have given anything to be able to do a Burpee to bring in the New Year.

The Challenge started on Tuesday, November 10. On Monday, November 30 I got the phone call letting me know that the cancer bus had pulled up and dropped off Melanoma into my life. Wow. New title. Cancer Patient. Hmm. Of course, my mind started reeling, and I got scared. But, then it was time to go workout and I needed the mental distraction more than ever. And, so I worked out for the next week or so until the two surgeries on Thursday, December 10. Then, it was time to hit the couch, hard.

Bed rest is not my strong suit, at all. I hated it. I was bored, I ate crappy food, I let my mind wander around in panic land. I realized I needed the gym mentally as much as I did physically. I started hanging around during your workouts just to keep me sane and it helped a lot. But, that darn Burpee Challenge continued without me; time does march on. By the time I was cleared to return to workouts, I was so far behind on the Challenge that I would have to do about 100 Burpees each day for the remainder of the Burpee Days. Yeah, I started to miss the bed rest then. Talk about Kill Your Coward...

I kept at it, and it sucked a lot. But, I knew that I could do it. My back hurt, my leg hurt, and I got stronger slowly. But, it was not all physical. Mentally, I bounced back even stronger than I was before.

For those of you who made it through, congratulations. For those who started but did not finish, please consider trying again. The feeling of accomplishment is amazing and totally worth work. For those who have never done it and are interested in the insanity, I would like to do it again. Truth be told, I was 500 Burpees short once the end came. I am not going to claim cancer as an excuse, but I will say I gave it my best effort. I did not fail, cancer just got in my way. So, I will see ya all in the next Challenge! Besides, I have another new title. Cancer Survivor.

Have a Coke and a Smile, If Ya Can.

Remember the old Coca ~ Cola commercials?

So you just gotta have your soda huh? Ok. And you drink Diet because you think that is a more appropriate way of handling your inability to just drink a glass of water and get over it. That is fine by me. But you know that you have to be aware of exactly what you’re chugging. One of the illustrious CrossFit 180 crew-members asked me to write a post that would truly scare the Diet Coke right out of her hands. Ok, here is the list of ingredients and what they really are.

Carbonated Water – Ok, this I don’t have a problem with unless you are struggling with dental woes.

High Fructose Corn Syrup – Glucse is enzymatically altered to make fructose. Yes, I love it when my food is enzymatically altered. I want my foods to be changed in many non-natural ways. Thanks for stepping up HFCS.

Caramel Color – is a stealthy ingredient. It is burnt carbohydrates. Yay! The soda company burns the carbs for us before we consume them so we wont have to burn them off with exercise. If only it really were that simply.

Phosphoric Acid – happens to be an excellent choice if you are trying to remove rust. Yummo! Well, I suppose you may indeed have an iron gut. Kudos to you. If that is not enough reason to love it, then appreciate the stellar job it does at weakening the bones in your body. You have strong muscles from CrossFit, so I am sure that will take care of those puny bones.

Natural Flavors – Yeah, right. And, I have some ice to sell to an Eskimo. Here and here are sites that will tell ya that there really is no such thing. If it were truly a natural ingredient, it would have been described with far more pride than a non-descript phrase that leads you into a Food Plan frenzy.

Caffeine – this stuff is the by-product of the work of the devil. It dehydrates you, sends your energy level falsely bounding and leaves you with no energy stores so you crash and burn. If that does not creep you out, let me tell you that it literally gets into your head. I mean your brain. It is digested by your tummy, sent through the blood stream and is then carried around and when that blood is in your brain, the caffeine hops off of its red blood cell chariot and reeks all sorts of science-y havoc. Got that? It gets into your brain. Blehk!

Aspartame (NutraSweet) – is a poser. It happened on accident. It was not intended to be the sweet thing that it is. A scientist was trying to make a drug and he messed up, licked his finger and decided he liked it well enough to call the mistake something yummy. Thanks doc! He was apparently a hard worker though. It took years to convince the US FDA that it would not cause brain cancer like they had originally thought. Way to stick with that mistake guys.

Potassium Benzoate – is a preservative. I think the coolest thing about it is how fun it is to actually say it out loud. Go ahead, Benzoate. Teeheehee. It is put in your soda because it is better known for keeping mold and bacteria from growing in your food than it is for being a source of Jamie’s entertainment. Well, that is not entirely true. It is also the chemical that makes fireworks whistle and that is very entertaining!

Citric acid – is actually a naturally occurring preservative and food flavoring agent found in citrus fruits. Unfortunately, it is linked to causing dental decay. Yay for a happy gal holding her Diet Coke and grinning from ear to ear with her jacked up grill. You go girl!

I had known about the bone loss associated with phosphoric acid. My solution used to be to take more Vitamin D and Calcium supplements. Yeah, that is the best way to handle the situation, right? And we have all been lectured about the crap caffeine pulls on our bodies.

Ok, ok. I have poked enough fun at the Diet Coke. I intentionally
wrote this with an inflammatory flair to accomplish the goal of freaking out the Diet Coke Crack Head. I would imagine that Diet Pepsi has a similar ingredients list, so please don't jump from the pot to the frying pan. I want you all to know that it was disturbing to research the ingredients; I had no idea what some of these things really are. Thanks for asking me to scare your soda away, I learned a lot. I stopped drinking Diet soda a year ago. Instead, I now drink an enormous volume of water, a few beers here and there, and a regular soda from time to time. To me, now that my tongue has lost familiarity with aspartame, it does not satisfy me in any way. If I am gonna chug, I am gonna CHUG. It tastes good! It is a Treat. Once in a while it is fine.

It you are about to climb the walls because I just took the Smile out of your soda, try chilled sparkling mineral water with crushed fruit. The fizzy will feel like the Diet Soda you long for, and the sweet from the fruit will help you with the twitch. I like a small orange, but I bet strawberry would be good too. Bottoms up!

Posts that are coming up:
The importance of rest and sleep, Peanuts, Food Labels, and Where I get my Info From. What else do you want to read about?

Sweet Success!

One of the things that happen after we consume the wrong foods is a ‘sugar high’, and then the crash and burn. This is not just mental; some of this is actually related to the insulin your pancreas is secreting and how your body is handling that sugar you just ate. There are all kinds of sugars in our food sources: glucose, sucrose, fructose, etc. It comes down to Insulin Sensitivity and Insulin Resistance. Sugars and insulin resistance can really muck up your body’s performance. Some folks use the Glycemic Index to get them to a more even keel regarding their sugar intake and their body’s reaction to the food they are eating.

You will hear people who are into the SouthBeach Diet talk about the Glycemic Index. Many CrossFit’rs are finding that they feel much better after kicking the majority of added sugar and sugar substitutes out of their Food Plan and upping their Veggies. What is the Glycemic Index anyway? It is a measurement of food that numerically describes how much or little the food you are about to eat is going to mess with your blood sugar.

Classification of various foods
Low GI - are generally the best choice
most fruits and vegetables (except potatoes and watermelon), grainy breads, pasta, legumes/pulses, milk, yoghurt, products extremely low in carbohydrates (some cheeses, nuts), fructose
Medium GI
whole wheat products, basmati rice, sweet potato, table sugar
High GI - should be generally avoided
corn flakes, rice krispies, baked potatoes, watermelon, croissants, white bread, extruded breakfast cereals, most white rices (e.g. jasmine)
(from Wikipedia)

Why do you care? Great question! I assume you CrossFit so that you will not suck at life. I actually hope you have more specific goals, but most of us generally want to be well and do well. Maintaining a level blood sugar is an outstanding foundation for your body’s performance! Maintaining a level blood sugar is also paramount in maintaining health weight, or dropping some lbs. If you are looking for more outcome from your workout or if you are trying to see less of you on the scales, maintaining a healthy and steady blood glucose and insulin levels by minimizing blood sugar spikes is an excellent place to start hitting your goals.

Here is a post by my nutritional crush that sums up my approach to sugars. Here is an interesting webpage that goes on to discuss the value of controlling blood sugar, and describing some faults with a fully focused GI approach to building your Food Plan. Your Food Plan is yours, you will have to click the links, do some reading, digest the material, and determine what meets your needs best. Enjoy!

If you are attempting to implement a GI Food Plan, the overall idea is to keep the Glycemic Index low. Others would say it is best to just decrease the amount of sugars you eat. If you do this, you can help regulate your blood sugars and decrease insulin resistance. This can improve overall body function and increase your work capacity. Woot! No matter if you eat the Snicker’s Bar after each workout, or if you save them for Treat from time to time, we all eat carbohydrates on a regular basis and we eat sugars too. Just make sure that the food you are eating is not sending your glucose around the block and back.

Posts that are coming up:
The importance of rest and sleep, Peanuts, Food Labels, and the things about Diet Soda that should scare it out of your hands. What else do you want to read about?

Why I have No Joy for Soy

I have been working way too hard to get good food into me and force good efforts to come from me in the gym to let something steal from me. As I continue down this path to health and fitness, I continue to trip over my best intentions. Recently I danced with edamame. Turns out, it was more like doing the hokey pokey. Soy might be robbing me of a lovely little waltz. So, let’s dance!

1, 2, 3, STOP. Most soy is genetically modified. I am not going to put on my white coat and pocket-protector and go on and on about why genetically modified food is bad. I am hoping that the idea just sounds bad enough that you can accept this one and move on. 1, 2, 3, BAM. Soy has chemicals in it that actually leach other nutrients from your body. 1, 2, 3, WEIRD. Soy contains a high level of estrogen. This is more of a problem for infant boys than it is for CrossFit’rs but still it is weird. 1, 2, 3, Whoa Soy is a Trypsin inhibitor. Ok, here is the skinny on trypsin. Trypsin helps our digestive tract deal with protein. Ironic right, that a ‘protein source’ like soy can inhibit protein digestion. 1, 2, 3, Really? Soy can inhibit thyroid function. Who wants their food choices to mess with their hormones?!?

4, 5, 6, GO! There are some good ‘replacements’ for Soy. Some people are using Soy Milk to allow them their milk fix even though they are lactose intolerant. Try rice milk instead. Some people are eating Soy bars as a snack. Try Lara Bars instead. Some people are eating Tofu. Umm, I had a hard time coming up with a good substitute for this one. I can’t quite get excited about finding another option to add a flavorless and gelatinous goo to my meal. To be clear, there are some relatively safer forms of soy. Organic fermented soy is not so bad for us, and it can be found in Tempe, Miso and Natto. Miso is used to flavor some soups, Natto is a Japanese ‘cheese’, and Tempe is an Indonesian product that is a lot like tofu but has more flavor than the soy tofu some of us have eaten.

An easy read containing intelligent points can be found HERE. Here is a short and non science-y video, and Here is another one that is a little longer but still good. Don't forget that I am looking at the overall big picture Food Plan here. It may be that a bowl of edemame from time to time is a great Treat for you.

When I am trying to do such a good job of eating food that fuels me and makes me feel good, I am not going to choose Soy. It would be like me doing the Rumba on stage during a production of The Nutcracker. It is just wrong.

Posts that are coming up:
Glycemic Index, Food Labels, importance of rest and sleep, Peanuts, and the things about Diet Soda that should scare it out of your hands. What else should I dance around? I have also gotten some requests to keep including recipes and/or meal plans. Will Do!