CrossFit Connection - Burlington, Ontario

Overhead Strength

Overhead strength is so important for everyone and so lacking in many people, most notable women. Not only does working overhead develop shoulder strength and stabilty but it also pounds the core by demanding stabilization of the spine. How hard is it for most people to do work overhead like painting a ceiling.....that is weakness in the shoulders an weakness in the core.

WOD

6 PUSH PRESS

6 PULL UPS

every minute on the minute for 20 minutes.

Wednesday at Burlington's CrossFit Connection

Nice effort by everyone on a tough met con workout last night. Squats, Kettlebell swings, and pull ups....Legs, core, and upper body....kinda covers it all not to mention the anaerobic kick in the butt. Great work to eveyone that was out last night.

WOD

80 squats

40 kb swings

20 pull ups

40 squats

20 kb swings

10 pull ups

20 squats

10 kb swings

5 pull ups

40 squats

20 kb swings

10 pull ups

80 squats

40 kb swings

20 pull ups

ITS FINALLY HERE! THE ZONE MEAL CALCULATOR

Ok, so this thing has turned into a beast!!! If you remember a few days ago I posted a zone meal/block calculator. WELL......our fellow crossfitter Carolyn got her hands on it and made it way way better. Then Angelo, our Sunday morning woodbridge crossfitter put the finishing touches on it. I must say, as a geeky accountant, this thing is a work of art!

Here it is for everyone to use. Many many thanks to the contributors!Download Copy of Zone_Block_Calculator_Crossfit

Out of your comfort zone

With this workout I really want our athletes to challenge themselves with the Thruster...use a weight that is 10 to 20 pounds heavier then they would normally use. The reps are low so really push yourself through the pain of the thrusters to get stronger.

WOD

20 Wall Ball 

20 Sit ups                    4 rounds

10 Thrusters (Heavy)

10 Pull ups

Lifting Cindy

WOD

21 Deadlifts @ Bodyweight

21 Box jumps

5 rounds of "Cindy"

15 Deadlifts @ Bodyweight    

15 Box Jumps

4 rounds of "Cindy"

9 Deadlifts @ Bodyweight

9 Box Jumps

3 rounds of "Cindy"

 *1 round of  Cindy = 5 pull ups-10 push ups-15 squats

Sunday Workout

Welcome to Lisa to her first CrossFit workout this morning great effort and really nice form on some pretty complex moves...hope to see you back soon!!!

I think we did this workout about 6 weeks ago......love these barbell complex type workouts...the weight just keeps getting heavier and heavier with each successive rep.

For most people the power clean is the limiting factor so use that as your guide when picking your weight. When doing the power clean remember to jump and shrug the bar up then drive your elbows around as FAST as POSSIBLE.

WOD

15 Deadlifts

12 Hanging Power Cleans           5 rounds

9 Front Squats

6 Push Jerk

Recommended weight mn 95-135, wmn 55-80

post weight used and time to comments

MORE SUPPORT FOR CONVERTING TO THE ZONE

We were talking today about one of our favorite topics - the Zone after the 9am class. We all know by now the benefits of eating in the zone to maintain insulin levels and prevent hyperinsulinism ( aka way too much sugar for way too many years). We also know the benefits of this for the growing population facing type 2 diabetes.....but did you know that there is a New Type 3 Diabetes Discovered

Discovery that insulin is produced in the brain raises possibility of Type 3 diabetes linked to Alzheimer’s Disease and changes the way we view the disease.

Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown Medical School have discovered that insulin and its related proteins are produced in the brain, and that certain levels of both are linked to Alzheimer's disease. "What we found is that insulin is not just produced in the pancreas, but also in the brain. And we discovered that insulin and its growth factors, which are necessary for the survival of brain cells, contribute to the progression of Alzheimer's," says senior author Suzanne M. de la Monte, a neuropathologist at Rhode Island Hospital and a professor of pathology at Brown Medical School. "This raises the possibility of a Type 3 diabetes." It has previously been known that insulin resistance, a characteristic of diabetes, is tied to neurodegeneration. While scientists have suspected a link between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, this is the first study to provide evidence of that connection. By studying a gene abnormality in rats that blocks insulin signaling in the brain, researchers found that insulin and IGF I and II are all expressed in neurons in several regions in the brain. Additionally, researchers determined that a drop in insulin production in the brain contributes to the degeneration of brain cells, an early symptom of Alzheimer's. "These abnormalities do not correspond to Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, but reflect a different and more complex disease process that originates in the CNS (central nervous system)," the paper states. By looking at postmortem brain tissue from people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, researchers discovered that growth factors are not produced at normal levels in the hippocampus - the part of the brain responsible for memory. The absence of these growth factors, in turn, causes cells in other parts of the brain to die. Reserachers found that insulin and IGF I were significantly reduced in the frontal cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus - all areas that are affected by the progression of Alzheimer's. Conversely, in the cerebellum, which is generally not affected by Alzheimer's, scientists did not see the same drop in insulin and IGF I. "Now that scientists have pinpointed insulin and its growth factors as contributors to Alzheimer's, this opens the way for targeted treatment to the brain and changes the way we view Alzheimer's disease," de la Monte says. The study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse and from a COBRE award from the National Institutes of Health. The findings are reported in the March issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (http://www.j-alz.com), published by IOS Press.

WOD

8 Front Squats   (wmn 65-85, mn 105- 135)

8 Burpees

8 Box Jumps             7 rounds

8 Weighted Sit ups     (wmn 20, mn 35)

post time and weight used to comments

Push jerk and Box Jumps

A nice combo for really hitting the shoulders and the core along with the explosiveness of the box jump. Overhead moves like the push jerk are an amazing strengthener of the core, requiring the abdominals and the back to a huge amount of work in their primary function of mid line stabilization. Any time we lift something straight overhead are core has to work hard to keep the spine straight.....is beautiful and its functional...so forget the useless crunches and lift something overhead if you really want strong abs.

WOD

12 Push Jerks (wmn 45-75 lbs , men 95-135 lbs)

20 Box Jumps                                                            5 rounds

post time and weight used to comments

Adam demonstrating full shoulder extension at the mid point of the push jerk with 135 lbs.

Hammer the Core

There is no better movement for developing functional strength then the deadlift. Not only will it make you more able in day to day life but strengthening your posterior chain will also alleviate so many  common back problems. Most of peoples complaints of back and neck pain is a result of a weak core and posterior chain....not degenerative disk disease or whatever else your chiro or doctor might scare you with. As we age we all experience SOME degeneration of our discs in our spine, its part of the aging process...its what we do with this that makes the differance. Deadlift HEAVY to give you a strong back and improve your posture and you will be amazed at much better you will feel. Passive therapies like massage, chiro, acupuncture etc will help to alleviate some of the symptoms of back pain but they will not fix the problem...increasing your functional strength will fix the problem.

WOD

Heavy Deadlifts

Find your 1 rep max.

At 75 % of your 1 rep max do 3 reps every minute for 12 minutes. (total 36 reps)

post weight used to comments

then

15 KB Swings

3 Turkish Get ups per side          5 rounds

10 Weighted Sit ups

 

I am always searching for ways to make the conversion to the zone as easy as possible for everyone. Today I found a really cool spreadsheet (you need excel) that will convert zone blocks into food quantities. Just insert at the top of the sheet the number of blocks that you want to eat and the calculations are done for you. I like it ( must be the geeky accountant in me!). Anyway, click on this link to see what I mean.

http://www.crossfitwarehouse.com/newsite/blog/tools/Zone%20Block%20Calculator.xls

Sunday Morning in Burlington

Big class this morning for our sunday morning workout. Typically on Sundays we focus on workouts that are a little longer or a little bit tougher. This morning we did Barbara, a tough little number.

BARBARA

20 Pull ups

30 Push ups

40 Sit ups

50 squats

5 rounds for time

a few items to note for the next time we do Barbara......

PULL-UPS mean chin OVER the bar. If you are subbing ring rows then full extension on those rings and a full pull up.

PUSH-UPS mean chin to the floor and full arm extension at the top.

SIT-UPS mean SIT UP. We do npot do crunches they aren't worth the time

SQUATS means squat all the way down. Squat to a med ball if you need a marker. Open your hips up at the top.

This means striving for this each and every rep.if you get 80% of them right you're doing great. Anything less, you're missin gthe point for the sake of time.

Coach Greg Glassman has said, “We work with a cast of about thirty exercises where about fifteen account for 80% of the workouts. The cast of characters that comprise our routines are so potent in increasing strength from head to toe that regular exposure to any of them nearly guarantees improvements in the others. Improve your deadlift, bench, and pull-ups and your squat, dips, and rope climb will come up. The neuro-endocrine response of the major lifts is so potent that they alone will increase your strength measured by any other exercise so that seemingly infrequent exposures to some exercises is not a certain disadvantage.” (powerathletesmag)

When I read this it made me think of something else I had read. "The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., "80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients." (wikipedia)

As a fitness program that models itself on a black box system of inputs and outputs, we should look to see if indeed 80% of our outputs are caused by 20% of our inputs. And if indeed we get the most bang for our buck from 20% of our inputs then we should really be concerned about how we approach that precious 20% of our training. From my own gut instinct, I would say that the majority of adaptations from Crossfit come from Squats, Pull-ups, Presses, Lifts-from-the-floor and sprints (and all the variations of those exercises).

Another way to look at this phenomenon is through the list of 10 adaptations: Strength, Stamina, Cardio-Respiratory Endurance, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Accuracy, Agility and Balance. Of these 10 adaptations are there 2 that cause the greatest results in the other 8? The choice is obvious: Power and Speed. If we want results we need to chase Power and Speed. Chasing better performance in those areas will give us maximum results in the other 8 adaptations. Crossfit is all about chasing speed and power and that is how we drive 80% of our adaptations. Moving large loads of long distances in a short amount of time is a recipe for success.

If this is true, then perhaps the opposite is also true: that 80% of our failures can be attributed to a mere 20% of shortcomings. This means that if you have a one or two small weaknesses they can impact 80% of your workouts. Look at it this way, if we can agree that squats, deadlifts, presses and pull-ups (and all the variations of those exercises) are the foundational 20% that drives 80% of the Crossfit train, then we can call these four exercises and their derivatives "The Vital Few."

What all this boils down to is realizing the importance of the "Vital Few." If you master those fundamentals, then you will reap the rewards of the program. However, if you cannot squat properly then that greatly limits your ability to move large loads, long distances over a short period of time. Therefore, your ability to express power and speed is blunted and thus your adaptations will be slower or non-existent. So glossing over a flaw in your squat or racing through half-assed push-ups will guarantee that you will not get the most out of the program.