Robb Wolf-Putting it all together

After attending the CF nutrition cert, the ideal of insulin control is cemented in my mind as the most important component of nutrition for the CrossFit athlete. As CFers, we do not want to big just to be big, we want to be just big enough to life huge weight, but we also want to be small enough to do 40+ kipping pull-ups, run a mile in 6min, get 30 rounds of Cindy, etc. The body shape of elite CF can be summed up as lean. Some are big and lean, others are smaller and lean, but all are lean. The best way to get lean is to control insulin. I can best control my insulin levels by controlling the amount of carbs I eat.

This can be done 2 ways. First, eat little to no carbs. I think this is the effect of eating pure "paleo". The downside to this is first, I can not eat carbs and I love them, I love rice, noodles, and especially tortillas. Also, I train, I deplete muscle glycogen, I need carbs to get those glycogen stores back up. I will instead chose to "zone". By zoning, I can still eat some carbs and I know that if I stay at 17blocks a day of carbs, I will control my insulin, have enough energy to train and still get to eat some of the foods I love on a daily basis. How do I know 17 blocks is good. Well, I did the math, went to the webpage, etc. But, also after playing with the zone for over a year, I do well on 15-17blocks of Carbs a day.

Next thing about eating for performance is to minimze gut irritating or inflamming foods. These foods will cause the gut to inflame and my body will be busy trying to get my gut to heal and not be able to heal my muscles (sore back) from my last snatch session. The biggest culprit in inflamming the gut is the wheat protein Gluten, though other grain based protein can do it to. Luckily for me, I do not have a problem with grains causing inflammation, at least not if I stay to that 15-17 block. I talked to Robb Wolf after the lecture about the ideal that alot of the bad things grains do, are in fact, based on the dose of the grains. Some people can not tolerate any without getting some GI symptoms, while others (like me) maybe able to tolerate a modest amount. He agreed. We both agreed that at high enough doses, most people will have problems. So, I will contine to eat some grain daily. I do not like to eat over 8blocks of grain based carbs a day.

Moving on to protein, protein is really the base of the zone diet. As a CFer, my protein needs are about 0.75x my lean body weight, which is about 16.5blocks (115gms) a day. While this is my prescription, protein does not effect insulin, so a little more probably only helps with muscle repair and eating more meat makes me happy. So, I have no problem kicking that up to 17-20, especially since I kicked my Carbs down a few. I get all my protein from animals (milk or meat) that counts for my block total.

Lastly, fats. I have experimented up to 3x fat. Fat sources is olive oil, milk, almonds, other nuts, etc. My actually fat is probably more then 51blocks, but since a block is 1.5gms of fat, not 3gms of fat this is take care of.

The changes I have made are taking more fish oil. I think about 3.5gms of EPA and DHA are my current targets. I am also really backing down on the artificial sweeteners.

Lastly, I think zone is best for me. When I can not zone (no weighing or measuring), I will just fall back on a paleo meal or just eat whatever I want. Finally, 3x a week, I will continue to kick my heels up and eat whatever I want. That is what I think works best for me.

Injury Update

I went to the urologist yesterday. Nothing major wrong, no surgery needed. He offered the advice that pulling a muscle in that area can inflame tendons and nerves and that could be a source of the pain, or the pain from the groin maybe referred from elsewhere.

I told him my plan...rest, ice, antiinlfammatories. He told me I know my body best (I like that advice) and he has nothing to add. Yesterday the pain became less and turned in a pain consistent with a pulled muscle. I think I pulled either my quadratis and/or psoas on my left side. I am considering going to a chiropractor too. I have never been to one, so if you guys have an opinion (either favorable or unfavorable) I would love to hear it.

I plan on doing a few lighter workouts this week. Some stretching, foam rolling and generally stuff to promote blood flow and healing. Hopefully, in a week or so, I will be all better.

Robb Wolf V Artificial Sweetners/Fish Oil

I do not always accept nutritional advice because others say so. There are a few things I was always "told", but never really bought into. One of those things was to avoid diet soda and artificial sweeteners if you want to lose fat. I believed fat loss had to with creating a calorie deficit, burn more then you take in, your body will burn fat (and muscle, organs, etc). I did buy that control of diet quality will help your body burn fat instead of other things, when in a calorie deficit. I do agree with the ideal that controlling insulin levels and trying to keep insulin low and the hormone glucagon high will cause the mobilization of fat from adipose stores to being used for energy (lipolysis). I also thought the best way to keep insulin low was to eat a modest amount of carbs/sugar, therefore, keeping my blood sugar from getting too high. I still believe all this, but I thought "diet soda, does not increase blood sugar, how much could it affect insulin?". I do not know if this next thought is actually true, but it makes sense to me.

Artificial sweeteners "trick" our taste buds into thinking we are eating something sweet. I would bet they interact with "sweet" receptors on the tongue surface, these stimulate nerves that tell our brain we are eating sweets. We process these impulses and think "oh something sweet". Now, here is my leap, could not the brain then send a message to the pancreas to secrete insulin? So, based just off of the sensation of eating something sweet, the brain thinks something sweet is entering the body, so blood sugars will start to rise and in anticipation of this, the brain goes ahead and sends a message to the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin levels rise, blood sugars do not rise, and you can get the "low blood sugar crash" or just have high insulin levels and thus blunt any fat breakdown. Now, this may or may not be true, but it allows me to finally connect the dots and understand why diet soda and other things made with artificial sweaters may still be preventing fat loss even though these things to do not have an effect of blood sugar.

The next thing is fish oil. I admit I really do not understand fatty acids and it does seem like most of the people championing fish oil, sell fish oil. I have always heard about the need to take fish oil. Robb Wolf does talk about the need to take it, why we should take it. I am still not convinced it is the wonder cure many say it is. Also, the dose given seems very high. From experience with medication any time I am told I need to take 20 pills of something a day, I think "really, 20, why don't they make 1 pill that has the dose in 20". So, I am not convinced fish oil is the key to health. I still think it is a supplement, that is not tested by the FDA (for better or worse) and it (or any other supplement) is supposed to supplement a good diet. Taking 20 fish oil tabs a day, while still eating poor food choices is probably a waste of money on fish oil. Now, there does seem to be a lot of people swearing by it, so I decided to try it. I started 3 weeks ago. I started with 1pill 2x day for a week, then 1 pill 3x day for a week, then 2 pills 3xday/week. At this point, my "dose should be on". I also did not want to dive into 10 fish oils a day not knowing how my body would react. I will continue it and see "how do I look? how do I feel? how do I perform". If I think the fish oil is positively impacting these things, I will continue, if not, I will stop and save my money.

Finally, have been doing this for 3 weeks, so I am the middle of my 2 pills 3x week. I am also injured, sore back, sore groin and injured enough that I went to get care for the first time ever from a training related injury. I started the fish oil before I got injured. In fairness to fish oil, it did not cause me to get injured, rounding my lower back during the second pull of a 180lbs snatch attempt did, but the fish oil did not prevent the injury (inflammation in my L quadratis muscle and aggravation of a hydrocele) either.

On the DL

I hurt my lower back on the 180lbs snatch attempt last week. I hurt it like I have done before. It was the same spot the Steve put up on his blog last week. This area has bothered me before. I usually back down, do some light RDL, KB swings, foam rolling and it is good to go.

A few hours later, it hurt a lot more. My groin also began to hurt. I was up all last night with pretty bad groin pain. It felt like I was being continually kicked in the nuts. I was concerned about nerve injury, hernia, twisted testicle. I went to the ER and tried to explain what I did. Back x-rays showed nothing visible with my back, but a testicular ultrasound showed I have a hydrocele. This is what is causing the groin pain. It is similar to a hernia. The ER doc told me no lifting until cleared by the urologist. I will see a urologist on Monday. In the meantime, I am keeping myself supported, iced and taking antiinflammatories on a set schedule. I will rest for the next few days, taking time off to let these problems go away.

Snatch

Today, the snatch. The true king of all exercises. Sure, some say it is the back squat, but name one other lift (or movement) that requires more of a combination of strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy?

I am changing how I train the snatch based on an article in Perfomance Menu a few months ago. The article talked about a guy watching a top Eastern European weightlifter train. This lifter would have the same second pull no matter what the weight was. However, as the load increased, he could not pull it as high and was forced to drop lower to catch it. I am doing this because in a effort to get under the bar, I think I am overpulling the second pull at lighter loads, and not developing the strength for heavier loads. Basically, I am doing power snatches just catching the bar lower and lower. Here is what I did: 95-115-135-145-155-165-170(BW)-175-180F. I had the height on 180, just lost it to the front on the catch. Here are the videos.

170lbs (Body Weight)


175lbs

Robb Wolf IV- The Zone

Robb Wolf moved on to the Zone diet after discussing why we should be eating food based on what were eaten in paleolithic times (Paleo). Right off the bat, Robb shared he views the Zone diet as nothing more then an "neat" way to track the amounts of carbohydrates(CHO), protein(PRO), fat(FAT) and overall calories(kcals) we eat.

The zone is a system of keeping track of the macro nutrients (CHO,PRO,FAT) we eat using a system based on a "block". In the zone, food quantity, not quality is measured. This is nothing new. Weight watchers does the same thing, using points, and even Richard Simons is in on this with his "deal a meal" (Robb brought up Richard Simmons). As for there being something "magical" that happens when our diets are 40% CHO, 30% PRO, 30% Fat, well Robb did not stand behind that. In fact, he brought up a few things like, when Barry Sears wrote the zone, he did not want it to be seen as high fat. I infer, that is why he kept it at 30% fat (which was consistent with the 70%CHO, 20%Fat, 10% PRO diet that is pushed by the mainstream medical establishment).

Next we went over how to do the math for the zone. This is all in CFJ 21, all over the net, etc.

Finally, we went deeper into "skinning" the zone. Some of the stuff I will write about was presented, some is an extension of what I learned.

First, the zone is a calorie deficient diet. It is not a maintenance diet. It has too few calories. This is a good thing if someone needs to lose weight, but when the desired weight is reached, the calories need to be increased. The best way is not to add more blocks (go from 17blocks to 18blocks), but rather to add fat blocks only, until someone looks, feels, performs well. This is why we see "17blocks, 3x fat." When this is done, we are now no longer eating a diet 40%CHO, 30% PRO, 30% fat.

Second, my zone "prescription" based on some web pages is 17blocks. So, every day I should be eating 17blocks of CHO/PRO/Fat. In a day, I should eat 17blocks of CHO, or 153gms of CHO (9g/CHO block).

153gms/day is about 45gm/meal for 3meals may cause too much of an insulin release for some people. This insulin may cause some people to hold on to their fat or may cause such fluctuations in blood sugar..high, then low, that they become "Carb Crazed Zombies". For these people, they need far less CHOs. Robb Wolf say just cut the carbs in half. Since we are all training, our bodies do need CHO to replenish muscle glycogen stores, so he recommends consuming half of the remaining CHO within 60min of exercising (the sooner the better). This is the post-workout window (PWO). But, since we still need the calories that the CHO were providing, we add 3blocks of fat for every carb deleted. Why? because on the zone a fat block is 1.5gms (1.5gmsx9kcal/gm=13.5 calories. 13.5x3=40.5kcal. 1CHO block is 36kcals, so there is sub). So, now our 17block prescription is 17blocks PRO, 9block CHO and 41blocks Fat (17blocks +8x3(for the deleted CHO blocks).

Another person may not be able to eat gain (gluten or other lectin intolerance). For these people trying to eat 17blocks CHO when you can not consume gains, would require them to eat a ridiculous amount of vegetables. Seriously 3 cups of broccoli is 1 CHO block, so it would take 15cups of broccoli in our 5block meal. The solution, eat less CHO blocks. Again, substitute 3fat blocks for every 1CHO block deleted. Also, if someone is doing this, they should be encourage to eat half their CHO blocks in the PWO.

The zone is all about food quantity. Zoning allows an athlete to know they are getting enough nutrition to fuel their performance and recovery. On the other side, zoning allows an athlete to be a little looser with their eating, but still know where to draw the line.

However, the zone is not for everyone. Some people will get an anxiety attack evening thinking about all the numbers involved in "zoning". Others may not want to spend the time weighing, adding up their blocks, etc needed to do the zone. For these people, by not paying as much attention to the quantity of food they are eating, they must pay attention to the quality. I think these people would do best just eating "paleo" foods.

Zoning Paleo is the best of both worlds. Eating very high quality foods in the right proportions is the way to eat to maximize gains. This is probably only really needed in the elite athlete. Everyone else will probably do very well just doing 1 or the other.

I personally love the zone. Keeping track of numbers, adding things up, etc fits my personality. After being in the military and doing anesthesia, the ideal of "the right amount" really appeals to me. I do not have a grain intolerance. Rather, I am concerned about insulin and consuming too much grains, but I still choose to eat them and they (in moderation) do not seem to cause me too much harm. "Zoning" allows me to know I am taking in the right amount of CHO a day. I also like to take in no more then half my CHO blocks from grains, the other fruit and milk.

Robb Wolf III The Paleolithic Diet

Robb Wolf is a big fan of the Paleolithic diet, but this is like being a big fan of oxygen. Once the reason to eat "paleo" is understood, who in the right minds could not be a fan. This weekend the light bulb finally went on in my head about why this is the way we should eat.

First, insulin control. The first part of the lecture was on controlling the hormone insulin. Hyperinsulinemia (too much insulin in the blood) is most likely the biggest factor in the high rates of heart disease, obesity, Alzheimer's, possible cancers and a host of other diseases that are plaguing modern man. Since insulin is released according to how much sugar is in the blood, controlling or even preventing sugar from entering the blood is a great way to control the insulin levels in the blood. How can we control sugar levels: eat less sugar (carbohydrate, CHO) and/or eat CHO that is very slow to digest, thus slowly breaking down in our intestines and slowly releasing sugar.

If someone looks at how fast a certain food raises blood sugar levels (look at a glycemic index) the food that impact blood sugar the lowest are vegetables. Next, we see it fruit (not fruit juice). Next we see root vegetables. All of these things do have sugar, but also CHO in the forms of fiber, which slow the vegetable/fruit break down.

There are other forms of CHO that are low in the glycemic index. Some breads, beans, and other grains (brown rice, etc) are pretty slow to breakdown and have low effect on blood sugar. The main issue with these types of foods is the protein in them (lectin). Remember, these proteins can irritate the gut and cause a whole host of problems. The biggest problem is from Gluten, the protein food in wheat. So, while other CHO besides fruits on vegetables may have minimal impact on blood sugar, they may trigger a host of immune mediated problems.

It follows that if these proteins can cause immune mediated problems, then it would not be wise to consume them as our protein source. It follows that plant based protein is in fact inferior to meat as a protein source.

Finally we come to fat. We really did not spend a lot of time on fat. Just that nuts, seeds and "grass feed" meats had excellent fats. These fats provide us with both energy and fatty acids to make hormones, neurotransmitters, repair cells, etc.

This is one thing I really can not wrap my head around. I have always had a hard time keep all my fats in line. What I learned is that when an animal is feed grain, it develops problems from the grain, just like people. The actual fat in that animal changes in that ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 goes from 1:2, to about 1:40. Omega-3 and omega-6 need to be in a certain ratio to control inflammation. Again, this was over my head but it does explain the need to supplement with Omega-3 (fish oil).

So, in the end, it seems like the best CHO are gathered. These have the least impact on blood sugar (low glycemic index) and also do not cause the body to attack itself (immune-mediated response). Things that grow, but have to be milled, cooked, etc contain proteins that can cause an immune mediate response. It follows, that these natural growing things, while they contain protein, it is not good to eat these proteins. For protein we need to eat things that we hunted (meat). This hunted meat had a good balance of omega-3 to omega-6. Other good fat sources are nuts and seeds (more things gathered). These are excellent sources of the "good fats".

So, there was my light bulb. The best food for us, is the food we hunted and gathered. This is the food that best controls insulin levels, does not cause inflammation of the stomach (the body can not repair the inflammation cause by training if it is busy fixing the gut), provides the most superior forms of protein (again are not irritating the gut and are complete in amino acids) and provides fat that is best type of fat for us.

That is "paleo" nutrition and that is my rationale for believe it is the best diet for us.

METCON-Rowing/ "Cindy"

For time:

Row 500M
10 Rounds of "Cindy"
Row 500M

12:58

Robb Wolf II Insulin and Gluten

Robb seemed to have 2 nutritional nemesis: Insulin and Gluten.

The first part of the morning was spent going over the hormone Insulin. The short version: insulin and excess insulin in the blood (hyperinsulinemia) is responsible for many bad things...hypertension, heart disease, obesity. He did review that a high triglyceride level in the blood is an excellent marker of too much insulin in the blood.

Insulin is a storage hormone. It causes the storage of carbs in the muscle and the production of fat. When it is elevated we are in the storage mode (getting fatter) not the mobilizing mode (getting leaner). The hormone glucagon is the opposite of insulin. Glucagon is responsible for lypolysis (fat burning). When insulin is up, glucagon down. The vice versa is true...glucagon is up, when insulin is down. So, get insulin down. One new thing I learn, insulin inhibits aldosterone (a natural diuretic). So, when we eat too much carbs, we hold water (we all knew this, now we know why). Also, when we back down from carb intake, less insulin is secrete, more aldosterone is produced and we pee more.

Insulin is release when we consume carbohydrate(CHO). The take home message, consume far less CHO, secrete less insulin, less bad things, more good things. Other things that release insulin are diary (beyond that from milk sugar), artificial sweeteners (the taste of sweetness cause our nervous system to secrete it) and the hormone cortisol. This is a stress hormone causes an increase in blood sugar and that causes insulin to be released. Insufficient sleep is a potent stimulant to release cortisol. So, adequate sleep is extremely important. Again he gave the examples of many people who could not lean out until they slept.

I also think too much training and not enough resting would fit this bill. I believe there is no such thing as overtraining just under recovering. Too little recovery, the body is stressed, cortisol is not under control, insulin is high and bodyfat is not lost. That was my take home message.

Next nemesis. Gluten. Gluten is the main protein in wheat. It is a lectin (plant based protein). It causes the lining of the small intestines to break down, leading to larger particles of food to pass into the body. The body launches an immune response against this food particles. However, some normal body structures look like these particles and the body attacks those too. This triggers a host of autoimmune disorders. On the performance side of it, gluten causes inflammation of the gut. Training causes inflamation of the muscles. The body can not repair the muscles if it is too busy repairing the gut, so muscle recovery is hindered and performance suffers.

Gluten is the main problem, but other lectins can cause this too. This is a big reason for the superiority of animal meat as a protein source. Afterwards, I spoke with Robb about us all having various levels of gluten intolerance. Such, that some of us maybe able to handle small amounts of gluten, while others can not. But, at higher doses we will all see problems with gluten intake.

Lastly, we talked about how animals are affect by these things too. An animal that is feed poorly will produce milk and meat with these things present. When we eat this animal or drink its milk, we get this stuff too. So, grass feed meat is the best. I will not be switching to grass feed meat and milk, but I understand the reasoning of why some people choose to.

Next up. How to eat. Paleo and zone.

Clean and Jerk

Clean and Jerk
MaxFit USA Warm-up

95
125
145
165
185
195
205
215
220 (PR)
225-Fail, I had the height on the jerk, could not get under it.

Here is the 220lbs

Robb Wolf Part 1

Robb Wolf Seminar.

First, I had a great time meeting Sean and Dani. It was great to hang out with them all day. They were very nice, humble people.

I have so much to say about Robb Wolf. If anyone reading this would ever like specific diet/nutrtional advice based on what CrossFit Nutrition say, e-mail or post comments here and I will give you a plan based solely on what I was "certified" by CrossFit to say.

Robb Wolf, the man. He is an excellent lecturer. He answered all questions without bias and was humble. He did "geek out" a lot. For me, that is what I wanted. I am definitely a phsyiology geek, so this was right up my alley. The first half was a review of endocrine physiology, which some people may not have followed, but even Robb acknowledge this. The second half was about performance nutrtion. First, the role of grains and gluten. Next, paleo, zone, and finally eating for mass gain and fatloss. IF was really just defined.

I will post on each of these separately as I have time this week.

What I learned: fish oil dose and that I should sleep more. Really stress and lack of sleep probably effect fatloss a little less then training. Here is the hierachy of fat loss: nutrition (you can not out train poor nutrtion). Training, even as little as 2 days a week with good nutrition, is needed, but not as much as a good diet, and finally stress management...controlling the hormone Cortisol is very important. Here is his main point, per Robb Wolf. "I often get emailed, I CF 3 on 1 off, I zone/paleo, I still can not lose my belly fat." He responds "Are you mil/leo/FF?" Over 90% are one of these and the disrupting in sleep patterns triggers cortisol, and that release blood sugar...releases insulin...cause fat storage and inhibits fat breakdown. Robb goes on to say "when someone say, I am none of thos, I say when was the baby born?" Again, it is sleep.

Rowing 500Mx5

Rowing 500Mx4, 2min rest between efforts:
1:47
1:54
1:57
2:01

My splits are getting a little faster, still a long way to go.

Bench Press/Chin-ups

I did the MaxFit warm-ups

400m Run- Sub'd 1.5min jump rope
15 Pass Throughs
10 Handstand Push-ups (head to ground)
10 Pull-ups (chest to bar)
15 Knees to Elbows (touch elbows)
10 Push-ups (chest to ground)
10 Therapy Squats (toes to wall)- I did 15, these were hard!
15sec. (each leg) Sampson Stretch
*Bar Warm-up*
4Pos. Clean 1×5ea position (shin, knee, mid-thigh, high hang)
Rack Press+Rack Push Press+Rack Push Jerk+Rack Split Jerk 1×5ea
“Rack” means it starts from your back in the clean grip.

WOD "Lynne-like"
3-3-3-3-3
Bench Press: 170(BW)-205-225-245(x2)-245(x2)
Chin-ups: BW, BW+35, BW+55, BW+70, BW+105 (x1)

I took too big of a jump from 225 to 245 on bench. 245x3 was my goal set, should have gone with 235 first. No spotter, so I had to be conservative and stop at 2.

CFWC WOD- DL&MU

For time:

5-4-3-2-1
315lbs Deadlift
Muscle-ups
5:50

This one is from a local affiliate. I heard John, the coach did it in 3:30. That is a smokin time. I have been a little sick lately and did not feel 100%. I saw Jason did this one and wanted to give it a go. The DL felt heavy! I did them all unbroken, but slow. I missed a few MUs.

Lookin back at last week I had a busy work. I worked a lot, and hit some intense WODs. 2 MaxFitUSA WODs, hit a PR in the snatch and worked all night. No wonder I am sick.

Robb Wolf Cert this weekend

Here are my current nutritional beliefs:

1. Calories in, calories out....our bodies are potential energy. We can use our organs, fat, muscles, etc for energy. If calories in exceed calories out...weight gain. The opposite, weight loss. Yes, you can lose weight eating only candy, it total calories in is less then our. Note, I said lose weight, not lose fat, gain muscle. This is all the first law of thermal dynamics. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, just transferred from one form to another.

2. BUT, the ratios and quality of the foods we eat will affect various hormones (who really knows which one) and these hormones will cause us to gain muscle or lose fat. So, it is the ratios of macronutrients and the quality of those nutrients that determine what our bodies actually look like, while it is the overall quantity of food taking in that determines how much we weigh.

3. I think it is very, very hard, maybe impossible to actually gain significant muscle and lose fat. I think this takes drugs. It is possible to gain significant muscle, but even eating excess calories of quality nutrition usually results in some fat gain. I may be wrong, but for 99.9999% of people, I think I am right.

4. What should we eat. PRO: 0.7-1.0 gram BW. CHO 50-150gms/day (that is about 6-17blocks), fat...who knows. It seem like get the PRO and CHO first, then adjust fat to gain, lose or maintain weight.

5. What should we eat...I like the CF football diet...meat, dairy, nuts, seeds, vegtebles..etc.

6. My 2 points that differ. I think pretty much all fruit is good and I have never seen someone get fat off fruit. I once saw a patient gain 200lbs from apple juice, but that is concentrated sugar. I know CF says "some" fruit. I assume they mean low "GI", but it seems like we humans often try to get too clever with things and I think the ideal of not eating high "GI" fruit is one. Again, does anyone know someone who ate a ton of natural whole fresh fruit and gained fat?

7. Grains...are they evil? Sure, I read Dirty Grains by Robb Wolf. He does not like grains, they almost killed him and his mom. Who would like a product that did that. But, here is the but, Robb Wolf and his mother both have Celiac's disease and grains trigger and immune mediated response that caused them serious harm. Likewise, if some one had an immune mediated response to milk, they would not like milk and they should not drink it. Same with shellfish. Allergic to Shrimp, then Shrimp is bad....for you! What about the rest of us?

I have read about how the other parts of gains are bad, have to be cooked, etc. Well, most meat has to be cooked too. In the end, a lot of Grains are Evil crowd is CF sound like the meat is murder crowd at PETA. There are people who can not tolerate certain foods. They should not eat those foods, but if you can tolerate them or even tolerate them in modest portions, you can eat them. I bet there is a dose-response curve for a lot of this stuff. This means at lower concentrations no effect at high, you see more trouble. I think of all the GOMADers out there who tolerated milk fine until they drank a gallon a day, then the problems started.

8. I believe in the feast and the fast. No one can stick to a clean eating plan 100% of the time, well some people can, they have a medical condition. All humans, throughout all of time have celebrated with food. It is part of who we are. Easter brunch, Christmas dinner, what ever. People universally feast. But, us in the west have forgotten to fast. Most people feast a few times a year. We westerners now feast daily. We no longer consume simple meals, we never fast. Fasting balances the feasting.

9. Last point, a low BF% is not the end point for me. Being the best athlete is. I could cut the carbs from 16blocks to 2 blocks, probably lose some fat, but I know my intensity will suffer. Look at all those bodybuilders with 3% BF, they could not bust a sub 3 Fran.

Right now, this is what works for me. It is zone 17blocks, 3-4x fat. Mostly, I hit about 18-20 blocks protein, 14 CHO, 40 fat. I try to eat on the money 12 block before dinner. Dinner is a little looser...I eye ball about 6-8blocks protein, 3blocks CHO and do not really look for fat. I think I need to do this 90% of the time. So, 4 meals a day/7days a week = 28meals/wks. So, 10% of 28 is 3. 3x a week, I can feel free to eat what ever I want.

These are my opinions, yours are welcomed. They may change after this weekend, I am open to new thoughts and ideals.

MaxFit CFB WOD/ME Thrusters

CFB WOD
by Max on Apr.13, 2009, under Crossfit Balboa WODs

Thruster 7×1
Work up to MAX weight. Must be reracked to chest after completing thruster to count.
65-115-145-165-185-195-205(PR)-215(missed)

My goal weight was 205, it felt good, went for 215 could not get it up after the FS

150 Push-ups AQAP: 3:54
When you break for a rest, count one penalty.
Here were my sets:
90-20-10-10-10-10 (5 penalties)

Each penalty=200m Sprint. I sub'd 100 skips for 200M run. After the first 2, I switched to 200 singles (those took about 40s) for 4 sets


This whole session took about 40min. I really think this is some great programming.

KB Swings/HSPU

Did not set time:
21-15-9
2 Pood KB Swings
HSPU

Rnds 1 and 3 unbroken, HSPU round #2, broken 9-3-3

1 Mile Run

Ran 1 mile through neighborhood.

6:44

I ran this course last about 14months ago, then it was 6:31.

MaxFit USA WOD

10 rounds AQAP of:
3 Snatch at 135lbs. I did power snatches
5 Pull-up (I did 6/round, read it wrong)

8 Rounds in 9:49

I did not read the WOD correctly. I read max rounds in 10min, instead of 10 rounds. If I would have done it correctly, it would have been very Isabelle like.

I am happy with effort. I had no ideal how I would do. 1 round a min for 10 seemed like a tall order, but I knew 1 round/2min would be slow, so 8 in 10min seems all right. Next time, it will be 10 rounds. Personally, I think I put for intensity into task priority vs. time priority.

135lbs snatches take a little focus. I slowed down, because I had to reset for each snatch starting in the second round. MaxFit programming is awesome.

Rowing/Push-Ups

3 Rounds for time:
Row 500M
50 Push-ups

9:57, I did this about 3 weeks ago in 10:40, so I improved. Good quick METCON.

ME Snatch

Met up with Jason today and had a good session.

During warm-up I jumped on a C2 model D (vs the old C I have been using), damper 10 and started pulling. The first 20s or so were just to get lose then I started with a sub 1:40 pace, I could not pull that on the old one at work. I ended up pulling 500M in 1:46, I was breathing hard, but it really showed that not all C2 are equal and that old one at work is hard.

We both worked on snatch. I did power snatches, but as the load increased I could not power it up any higher and they became squat snatches
65
95
115
125
135
145
155
165
170-looking more like squat snatches
175
180-F
180, had it, but walked off the platform-miss
180, got it with the slightest push out. It may not have counted in a meet, it might have, but it felt good to squat snatch 180lbs. After receiving it and standing up, I did 3 OHS with 180lbs, lost the 4th one.

MaxFit WOD

CFB WOD/MaxFit WOD
by Max on Apr.06, 2009, under Crossfit Balboa WODs

5 rounds AQAP of:
10 Handstand Push-up
15 Pull-up
20 Sit-up
25 Air Squat
200m Run- Sub'd 100 singles
15:11, all unbroken

ME Split Jerks

Split Jerks (from the rack)

95x3
125x2
145x1
165x1
185x1
195x1
205x1
215x1
220x1x3 (PR)

I have been stuck at 215 on the jerk for awhile. The goal today was to break it. I worked up focusing on getting myself under the bar. I am happy with my technique on the 220lbs, I did not keep going because I wanted to feel 220 was "wired". I am ready to break my C&J PR of 215, not that my clean is 235, and my jerk is 220lbs.

Post, I did 5min handstand practice ala Steve

Task Priority "Nate"

10 Rounds of "Nate" for time:
12:35

"Nate"
2 MU
4 HSPU
8 2 Pood KB Swings

All felt good. Experimenting with changing time priority to task priority

Snatch Balance OHS

Snatch Balance to OHSx2
45-95-115-135-155-165-175

My goal set was 175. I decided to stop there rather then push it. My PR for snatch balance is 205 and OHSx3 PR is 175. It was a little different move combining the 2. I need to work on my landing of the snatch.

Post:
2 Rounds for time:
25 Pull-ups
50 Sit-ups
4:35

I did not have any left in the tank after the first round.

Evolution of CrossFit

Check out:

www.CrossFitFootball.com
www.maxfitusa.com
Listen to CF Radio episodes 48 and 49.

What do you think? I think this is the evolution of CrossFit. The best of the open source model. I think it is what works and what is best if your goal is elite fitness. Why, both MaxFitUSA and CrossFit football are programs that involve both heavy lifting and short, intense METCONs (less then 15min). On CF Radio 48 Ricky F, 6th place at CF Games 2008 (better then Speal and OPT) states, very few if any WODs should take more 20min. He goes on to say all mainsite WODs should be scaled to allow them to be done in 20min. Here we see aurguably the best programmers....Max Mormont and Kelly Starett for CrossFit Football and MaxFitUSA and Ricky F giving us insight into how they program for results. After about 2 years, I think the best approach for overall fitness is a program of 2 days of heavy lifting, 2 days of METCONs (short and shorter) or a mix of those 2 on the same day, if time and life allows.

However, if you look at most affiliate blogs, they do not do this. Most program chippers everyday. Everyday spent in the greater then 20min zone. On top of that, the intent of all them seem to be nothing more then to smoke the client. Why do so many "coaches" think "making a client hurt", is the same as giving them good training? Is this because most of the paying clients feel like they are getting good training if it is a least 20min and it hurts. But, I do not believe this is the best way achieve fitness.

Why, doing more and more work at this level is not sustainable at the highest intensity and that is where the money is. Sure, Pain Storms, Navy Seal WODs, or even rucking 40km with 40kg is very hard, and a test of mental fortitude, but beyond developing mental toughness they do little or anything to develop fitness. If anything, they break the person down too much to recover from and actually hinder development. But, why do so many affiliate "coaches" program WODs like this? I can only assume it is because it is comforting to the paying client for them to get a "20min workout". A set of 1RM deadlifts, well that may tip the apple cart. How many of your average CF gym goers who pay $20/session like to come in and see Deadlifts 1-1-1-1-1-1? People believe fitness results come from time in the gym, from sweating in the gym, from getting "smoked". Time is the same as effort...it is not!

Here is where I think most people, especially those with lives that do not allow for 2hours in the gym everyday, would make the most gains:
Day 1 go heavy for 1 or 2 major lifts
Day 2 METCON, short, intense 5-15min of nonstop movement. Program exercises, loads and reps to allow for this
Day 3-Skill work- most are smoked and they do not have the intensity to do it again, so don't. Or rest
Day 4-Rest
Day 5, go heavy again
Day 6, go intense METCON again
Day 7 rest. Repeat.

Finally, I follow everyone's blog at least 3x a day. When I see people fall off the training schedule I wonder why. Most likely, it is because life happened. It tends to do that. The ideal that training has to be 1hour long, has to be based on a particular assigned WOD for that specific days, just causes life to happen even more.

CrossFit Football offer both a structured strength progress and a daily WOD. I will be looking there and MaxFitUSA for inspiration.