What is your excuse not to train today?

Tanya West of CrossFit North Fulton. Born with Spina Bifida and paralyzed from the waist down.

The most ridiculous hang clean I have ever seen

I ran upon this video on YouTube from a respected university.  If my athletes looked this bad doing an exercise, I wouldn't take video of it to show my skills as a coach, much less allow it to be posting it for everyone to see.  You be the judge

Then I found this video of an 8th grader who has near perfect form, taught to him I am sure, by a father, PE teacher or coach, that asked his athletes to worry about form not weight.  Why do we spend so much time asking Pro and College coaches for advice, when coaches at this level do all the hard work before they get to college?

Be an athlete first

This is an amazing video, about an amazing athlete.  It speaks to being an athlete first, and worrying about your sport after you have accomplished that.  Find every possible method to improve your basic athletic skills: strength, speed, balance. 

How Lazy does one person have to be

I bet this woman complains about the size of her pant too.

When you think you are having a bad day, stop and think

This is a bad day. 

Low Carb Diet and Serum Cholesterol

Here is a refereed article concerning improvements in serum cholesterol numbers in the absence of high amounts of carbohydrates.

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/133/9/2756

Paleo and MS

These articles are just popping up today

http://darwinstable.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/the-paleo-diet-and-multiple-sclerosis/

High Fat Diet and Cancer

interesting article for all the lovers of grains and a starch at every meal

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1662484,00.html

45 day fat loss challenge

Tomorrow starts the 45 day fat loss challenge at power athlete.  Non- competitive athletes and adults that wont to take the challenge only have one criteria, they must stay under 100 grams of carbohydrates per day for 45 days, that is it.  The majority of carbohydrates must come from sources low in carbs such as most vegetables.

 

Web source that may help:

http://weightloss.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atkinsfriends.com%2Fcarbcounter.shtml

Gym Pics

Started playing with the camera on my blackberry today, not a bad little camera

Dr Vasilu before and after his 500m rower sprints

Brent Roth during squat bodyweight x 8 + ring pull ups x 8 intervals

Sandy Plunkett is a bad ass

Pictured below are teeth marks left after they made contact with the killer elbows of Sandy "kick ass and take names" Plunkett during the girl's basketball game this week  Nice Job Sandy

Alter Football Signing Day

Archbishop Alter High School today sent 5 players to division 1 football programs, two of our own Max Plunkett and Evan Neff both signed as part of this ceremony Evan is going to Ball State and Max is going to Kent State.

Evan and his parents Bob and Carolyn

Max and His family, Mom and Dad, Theresa and Gail, sister Sandy and brother Micheal

Congrats to all the boys we wish them well.

Found the Side Effects of Alli

the weight loss supplement Alli has certain side effects, that are compiled on the website http://www.thewvsr.com/alli.htm quite histerical really that anyone would rather do this to themselves, rather than exercise with any kind of intensity and watch their dietary intake.

Yet another interval endorsement, battling diabetes

Short fast sprints 'cut' diabetes

Short bursts of intense exercise every few days could dramatically cut the risk of diabetes and heart disease, according to an Edinburgh professor.

Rather than slaving away for hours in the gym, people should focus their attention on quick "sprints" with each workout lasting just a few minutes.

James Timmons, Heriot-Watt University professor of exercise biology has studied the effects of quick exercise.

He recommends 4 x 30 second sprints on an exercise bike three times a week.

He said people could reduce their risk of diabetes and heart disease substantially with short, intense workouts - with such "time-efficient" exercising appealing to busy workers.

In his study, published in the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders, 16 men exercised for three sessions a week for two weeks.

Each session was made up of 4 x 30 second sprints on an exercise bike.

This involved the men going as fast as they could for 30 seconds and then taking a few minutes of complete rest between each sprint.

After two weeks, Prof Timmons said the results were "substantial", with a 23% improvement in insulin function.

While his research focused on young men, Prof Timmons said it would work for people of all ages and for both men and women.

He said: "This study looked at the way we break down stores of glycogen.

"Think about diabetes as being glucose circulating in the blood rather than stored in the muscles where it should be.

"If we take out the glycogen from the muscles through exercise, then the muscles draw in that excess glucose from the blood."

Intense contractions

He added: "If you go for a jog or a run you oxidise glycogen but you are not depleting the glycogen in your muscles.

"The only way to get to this glycogen is through very intense contractions of the muscles.

"If we can get people in their 20s, 30s and 40s doing these exercises twice a week then it could have a very dramatic effect on the future prevalence of diabetes."

He said the effects were bigger than the traditional "one hour of running per day".

The exercise routine is known as "high-intensity interval training" or HIT for short.

Prof Timmons said current guidelines on how much exercise people should take may need revising.

Diabetes UK research manager Victoria King said short duration, high-intensity training improved insulin action in young healthy males but the research had only been undertaken in a small group of people without diabetes.

She said: "Whilst the improvement in the control of insulin action in those who undertook the training is interesting, it's limited at this stage as to what we can learn as only whole body sensitivity has been measured."

Story from BBC NEWS

Hybrid Training, GPP, Sports Conditioning

I have been, for 15+ years now, tried to get my head around the optimal combination of these three things, we didn't call it hybrid training back then, but that is what it was.  Coach Glassman, the genius behind Crossfit, has mastered the out of the box look at physiological adaption.  He recently made a comment during a speech that by experimenting with USA skiing, adding pullups to a downhill skier, makes them a better skier.  They don't know why, it just works so they have run with it.  Until recently, I have found it necessary to have concrete proof on why I was doing something, backed up by research, even though I already knew it worked through personal experimentation.  My programs now reflect the fact that I have increased strength levels with high rep jumping, heavy core work is key to lifting big weight, you can still build lactate threshold and still lift heavy, they aren't exclusive that need to be programmed separately.

It is my goal in the next year, and years to come, to continue to carve the fat off of the meat that is movements and programming, to expose only working aspects.

New Direction

We are trying to take Crossfit principles in a new direction.  Crossfit as a system is one of non-specialization.  We train a large number of athletes that need a certain portion of specialization in their training. 

While maintaining levels of intensity, we will swerve toward power output of some athletes, strength for others, cardiorespitory fitness, and intermittent anaerobic fitness for others.  While doing this, all athletes and clients alike will also train all the other modalities mentioned, just in different proportions.  The spirit of Crossfit is experimentation within an open source system, so that is what we are doing, opening Pandora's box!

Thank God, President Obama said it.

From his inaugural speech, President Obama said, "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin the work of remaking America."  Truer words have never been spoken.

Alter Lady Knights Basketball

Mary Driving to the basket against Beavercreek

Ali M Fighting for the Ball

Nuf Said

Theresa Plunkett is my savior

thanks so much for the coffee this morning after my alarm malfunction.  You are my hero.