Friday, 06Aug10

 Gravy Train

This is a timed workout 25 work / 15 rest with a 40 second rest in between each of the 4 rounds

• Burps
• Band Thrusters
• KB Renegade Rows w/ pushup
• 180′ twist ball slam
• Figure 8 to a hold
• Back Presses

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“Do all the good you can,
 By all the means you can,
 In all the ways you can,
 In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.” – John Wesley

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Many football coaches ARE NOT STRENGTH COACHES.  That’s right they are football coaches and anything they stress in the weight room is usually from their day and not appropriate for developing proper movement, strength, flexibility,etc.

Tuesday, 08Jun10

We will do a classic circuit today. Five rounds :

30 work/25 rest
25/20
20/10×3

Reclines
Push press
KB overhead snatches
Power rope
KB deadlift/squat
Push ups
Tire flip
Burpees

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“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.” ~ Jonathan Kozel

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Wednesday, 02Jun10

The 11:00am class on Friday will be cancelled, please feel free to join the 5:30am class 

Swing, Squat & Dip

Perform these five exercises 20 sec work / 10 sec rest / 8 rounds no rest

• KB swings
• MB squat & push
• Dips
• Battling ropes 
• Burpee, into a sandbag clean

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“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” ~ Robert Collier

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ROD

Tuesday, 25May10

Tabata Tuesday

5 rounds of 40/20

• Jumping pull ups
• Dumbell push presses
• Double kettlebell clean/squat
• Mountain Climbers
• C2 Rower

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Do It Now. This is what you should say to yourself whenever you find you find yourself saying, “I’ll do it later.” Just get up and do it. Don’t think about anything. The more you think, the more you procrastinate. And the more you take action, the more you inspired to take action. Soon it will become your habit to take action. As Johann Von Goethe said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

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Proper set up for the deadlift: Natural lumbar curve, hips higher than the knees, shoulders in front of the bar, weight on the heels.

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William Li presents a new way to think about treating cancer and other diseases: anti-angiogenesis, preventing the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor. The crucial first (and best) step: Eating cancer-fighting foods that cut off the supply lines and beat cancer at its own game.

RESULTS from the ROD Hangin Around

Hangin Around

 75 Hang Squat Clean Thrusters
every minute stop and do 5  Burpees

Chris B.   13:46 (DB 30lbs)

Joe S.       17:23 (DB 20lbs)

Maria       12:32 ( DB 10lbs)

Juan        20:13 (BB 65lbs)

Amy        10:05 (DB 10 lbs)

Debbie     7:23 (DB 10lbs)

Lindsey    12:35 (DB 10lbs)

Tuesday, 11May10

Tabata Couplets 20 sec/20 sec/ 20 sec rest x 8 rounds

• Jumping pull-ups / half burpees
• Kettlebell swings / star jumps
• DB thrusters / lateral box jumps (on steppers - 4 risers high)

Make every effort to use your heaviest resistance.

Some of you have asked me that you want to bulk up a bit. Well my answer to you is to use heavier resistance and increase you work capacity, ( add more reps per round). You have 42 days till summer arrives. Thats more than enough time to increase muscle mass, if you work hard enough.

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 “We will often find compensation if we think more of what life has given us and less about what life has taken away.”  - William Barclay                     

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Starting Strength

Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training is the new expanded version of the book that has been called “the best and most useful of fitness books.” It picks up where Starting Strength: A Simple and Practical Guide for Coaching Beginners leaves off. With all new graphics and more than 750 illustrations, a more detailed analysis of the five most important exercises in the weight room, and a new chapter dealing with the most important assistance exercises, Basic Barbell Training offers the most complete examination in print of the most effective way to exercise. Below is an excerpt from Starting Strength…

Curt White, 12 years old in this national champion, began training with weights several years earlier and developed into one of the strongest men in US history, the holder of the American record Clean & Jerk of 440 pounds in the 181 lb class. Kids can get very strong using sound exercise principles that progressively challenge them physically.

There has been considerable debate among the public, educators, coaches, physicians, and scientists as to when it is appropriate to begin weight training in children and adolescents. A variety of apparently sound reasons have been provided as grounds for not training youth or training them only with the use of machines with pre-determined movement pathways. Presented here are some common criticisms leveled at the training of youths by the biased, misinformed, and inexperienced. Each of these common claims is followed by an objective examination of the scientific and medical literature. Although this book is most relevant to students just beginning high school, the wide array of maturation rates in children makes these issues relevant to the coach. Every coach should be versed in the literature and theory surrounding his profession and be able to defend his methods of training. Lack of knowledge can be mistaken for lack of competency. Criticisms of Youth Weight Training.

(1) Weight training has been portrayed as ineffectual in improving strength in younger children, as hormonal response is largely absent in preadolescents. Continue reading…

Saturday, 01May10

Conditioning  Tabata Circuit

We are going for 20 seconds rest / 10 seconds work – non-stop 8 rounds

• Squats
• Pull-ups
• V-ups
• KB swings
• Push-ups
• MB russian twists

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“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.“ - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Calorie Restriction NOT Key to Increasing Life, Lowering Insulin Level Is

A new study has examined the effects of food on typical biological signs of advancing age. Generally, as you get older, you will have elevated levels of glucose, insulin, and triglycerides.

Study participants were given a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with an adequate amount of protein. The researchers measured a number of factors, including body weight, fasting serum glucose, insulin, leptin, lipids, and thyroid hormone… continue reading

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This clip is a classic and has always made me laugh, I hope you enjoy.

Tuesday, 13Apr10

Jump, Jump, Jump

1:00 rest between rounds

• Jumping pull ups
• Burpee
• Sandbag Cleans
• Log Jumps 
• DB thrusters
• Jump rope

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“Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead“ by Joshua Green, The Atlantic.

Paleo Challenge starts in 2 days. Let’s do it. This is just an example of a paleo recipe.

Salmon Cakes

Ingredients 12 oz. Wild King Salmon (remove skin) 1 egg 1/4 cup Almond Meal 1/4 cup celery 1/4 cup onion 1/4 cup red peppers 1 Tsp Dill (may substitute other herbs) Salt and Pepper to Taste Directions 1.In a food processor, add salmon, eggs, almond meal, celery, onion, red pepper and spices 2.Pulsating food process 3-5 times for 1-2 seconds to mix ingredient 3.Form palm sized cakes and place on wax paper 4.Refigerate for 1-2 hours 5.Heat skillet with olive oil or medium high oil (e.g. Canola oil) 6.Sear on both sides for 2-3 minutes 7.SERVE with Dijon Mustard Makes 6-8 Cakes, Serves 3-4

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“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
- Mark Twain

Tuesday, 06Apr10

Tabata Tuesday – Push Slam Swing Pull

20 sec / 10 sec / 6 rds. Do 6 rounds all at one station before moving on… pace yourselves. Stay in a rep range that is consistant throughout the 6 rds.

• Air Squats
• Push-ups
• Slam ball
• KB deads / swings
• Mt climbers
• DB push press
• KB high pull
• Rower (row hard)

The Friday 11:00 am class is cancelled. Please mark your calendars.

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Know the Science behind weight-loss, watch the video below.

“Insulin and Body Weight” with Dr. Scott Connelly, a CrossFit Journal preview video [wmv]

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Here is a funny spoof on the Wii Fit game, enjoy!

Tuesday, 30Mar10

Tabata Tuesday

20 seconds work/20 seconds work/20 seconds rest x 8

Couplets

• Jumping pullups/ Burpees
• Kettlebell swings/ Tuck jumps
• Kettlebell high pulls/ Dumbbell thrusters

Do 20 seconds of work at each movement in each couplet, take 20 seconds rest then move to the next couplet.

Complete all three couplets

Take 1 minute rest between. Do 8 rounds.

 Reverse Hyper Machine

The reverse hyper is a device that Louie Simmons, of the infamous Westside Barbell, invented several years ago. This machine targets the glutes, hamstrings, stabilizes the lower back and engages the spinal erectors. The benefit to this exercise is that it isolates the lumbar spine & sacrum allowing for decompression and traction, in that area, that you can’t get anywhere else. Check out the video below on how to use this equipment correctly.

Tuesday, 23Mar10

Metabolic Tuesday

30 second couplets w/15 seconds between, four rounds with 1 minute between rounds. Complete each couplet for 4 rounds before moving on.

• KB swings
• reclines

• pushups
• sandbag front squat

• burpees
• kettlebell highpull

• rower or bike

• db push press
• walking lunge

• sit ups/toss
• MB russian twist

The Illusion of Fitness: Lies We Want to Believe

   The fitness industry is full of lies we want to believe. 

   The promotion of old wives tales as fact is the cornerstone and hallmark of the typical product or supplement campaign: Using this just 10 minutes a day can give you flat abs, or taking this will help you lose 30 pounds in 30 days.

Affronting common sense, brilliant marketers leverage media to spin these yarns to a captive audience that wish they fit into their high school jeans and looked like the woman on the ab saucer. The seemingly too good to be true simply is, yet otherwise smart people are prone to buying into the hype and accepting falsehoods as truth.

According to a report published by the Federal Trade Commission, Americans invest more than $30 billion a year in weight loss products and services. We spend hard-earned money on pills to make us thinner, contraptions to “tone and sculpt” and, in some well-intentioned instances, gym memberships to get fit. Lots and lots of money is being spent, while all the while, simple logic shows us that old-fashioned exercise that doesn’t require a TV or juice bar, and a moderate diet, are the magic bullet we’re seeking.

The power supporting the lies and gimmicks that are the foundation for a multi-million dollar industry: We, the general public, really want to believe the lies because we really don’t want to work hard.

Since the industrial revolution, technology has pulled people from the fields and hard, manual labor and inserted them in to the office cubical. Innovation has impacted even the most minute manual chores: We move leaves with a blower instead of a rake and sit down to mow our often postage-size lawns. Technology has created an attention deficit populous who prefer sound bites to analysis and 60-second meals to home-cooked.

This “easy way” attitude has carried over into our own health and fitness. We look for ways to look like the cover of Vogue or GQ without the effort. We want to pop a pill or drink a “shake” and lose our love handles. We want to sit in front of the TV and squeeze, pull or crunch our rolls, flaps and jiggles away.

In our most ambitious moments, we let ourselves believe that fitness is accomplished in 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week, on the elliptical machine… in front of the TV. We embrace this minimum prescription for fitness, working as little as we have to, yet expect that taking the easy way will deliver real, measurable results.

The latest infomercial selling a product that burns fat, tones muscle and will make you popular sells a million units while a set of good old boring dumb bells sits in the closet or is used as a door stop.

The truth isn’t marketing spin or hype: We have to work hard if we want to achieve the fitness we value and desire. We have to get off of the couch, pick up the dumb bells, and move our bodies. We have to actually work as part of working out.

What is an effective workout? An effective workout increases your work capacity. Effective workouts increase you ability to lift, move and recover.   An effective workout is functional: The movements are multi-joint and multi planes of movement. 

Effective workouts – workouts that really will increase your fitness, help you drop fat and increase muscle — are hard. You can’t read the newspaper, talk on your cell phone or sit down in front of the TV and achieve an effective workout.

An effective workout is intense. It should result in some gasping for breath and significant burning in the muscles. An effective workout doesn’t allow the time to be stationary long enough, or moving around so little, that you can read the Advance or People magazine. You’ll never feel like an effective workout was easy.

Anything worth accomplishing is not easy. In fact, anything of value is difficult to obtain. There’s no easy way out, but it’s worth the effort. Being fit is really hard work, but it will deliver the results you’re seeking.

   Coconut Bliss

If your like me one of the biggest temptations in my lifestyle is ice cream. Unfortunately iced cream is made from milk and sugar and any variety of artificail flavors. If your trying to follow the Paleo Diet then I knew it wasn’t the real stuff we could eat. Enter “Coconut Bliss”. They use Coconut Milk which as we all know is paleo and loaded with medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) identical to those in human breast milk. Meaning it is comparable with what nature designed for us. For sweetener they use Agave Syrup which keeps the glycemic index down. And for flavors they only use whole organic foods. It’s dairy free, soy free, gluten free, sugar free, low glycemic, and all organic & fair trade ingredients! I mean these folks thought of everything! Did I mention it tastes great? I picked some up at Wegman’s Market in Woodbridge, NJ. Below is the company’s website.

Coconut Bliss