June 2008

With the Games less than a month away, we need to firm up a few outstanding details for all you CF gamers out there.

First and foremost, we need to get a final headcount of all competitors on Team CFO! So if you registered to compete, post to comments.

On the other hand, if you're planning on going down as a spectator, also post to comments.

And finally, we need to come up with a final Team CFO t-shirt slogan and design.

TomC has graciously offered up two of them:

T-Shirt Idea #1

T-Shirt Idea #2

And thus, you now have one more thing to post to comments: your vote for a t-shirt slogan for the Games (it doesn't have to be either of the above). I'm setting a deadline of Wednesday, June 10 for the t-shirt-slogan-and-design voting.

So get busy posting to comments!

Kelly doing "Grace"

We are hosting a much needed seminar on Back Health with Kelly Starrett of San Fransisco CrossFit on June 11th from 5p.m. to 7p.m.. The seminar will be FREE TO ALL and will cover the following:

Anatomy for Jocks
Trunk Tension and Strength: What is it and how to train for it.
Recurring Back Problems: Possible culprits and cures
Going Heavy: Technique Tips

Kelly received his Doctorate in physical therapy from Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, CA. Kelly also is the founder (2005), current head coach and a Level III senior coach at San Francisco Crossfit. Kelly’s coaching background and physical therapy training make him uniquely capable of coaching both athletes and non-athletes who are injured or recovering from injury. Kelly's own background as an athlete and coach includes paddling whitewater slalom canoe on the U.S. Canoe and Kayak Team and paddling as a member of the U.S. Whitewater Rafting Team, where he won two national titles and competed in two world championships. Kelly is the founder and director of Liquid Camp, a weeklong whitewater kayaking camp for teens living with HIV/AIDS. In his free time, Kelly enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, surfing, paddling, and training.

Kelly works at the Stone Clinic-an excellent place for sports rehab--***highly recommended***http://www.stoneclinic.com/

We hope all of your can make the seminar. We will have one mega-7pm class to make up for the 5p.m. and 6p.m. classes!

Post your R.S.V.P to comments.

The CF Games t-shirt design above was submitted by Vanessa (aka Vee).

I really like the design, which combines elements of the Oakland A's, the Raiders, and the Hell's Angels (all great Oakland teams, so to speak).

And in case you're wondering, the skull-and-crossbones design is two barbells combined with an upside down kettlebell, in case it's not apparent at first.

If we throw "CrossFit Oakland, CF Games, July 5-6" on the back, I think we'll be good to go.

Thoughts?

Post 'em to comments.

On June 26th the Body Fat Test Mobile is coming back to CFO ($49 for a complete analysis)! We thought it'd be a good idea to dedicate the entire day of classes to Skill Assessments in order to allow all of you to set new one, three, and six month goals. We will provide everyone with a copy of the Skill Levels and Goal sheets on the 26th, and if you're interested in getting your body composition analysis, talk to Mike or Nicole.

Post your first shot at one month goals to comments.

A photo of food from the NY Times article on meal timing after physical activity

Thanks to Annie V for once again passing along an interesting article from the NY Times for the need (or the lack thereof) to immediately replenish muscle glycogen post-workout.

The full article can be found here.

The gist of the article is that real food takes primacy over any fancy 4:1 carb:protein shakes taken post-workout. And that the timing of the intake isn't so important as we might think.

The final paragraph of the article sums it up nicely, in fact:

Dr. Phillips might have an energy bar during a long workout. But ordinarily he does not worry about getting a special carbohydrate-to-protein mix or timing his nutrition when he exercises. Instead, Dr. Phillips said, he simply eats real food at regular meals.

But don't take my word for it; read the whole article and post your thoughts to comments.

The brains behind the brainstorm.

As many of you may know, besides being an outstanding CrossFitter, Lance V is also an accomplished Chef (and an all around cool dude). Lucky for us, he is focusing his creative culinary talent on FUEL TO GO!

Next Monday, June 16th, Lance will be delivering Zone-based meals to CrossFit. There will be 2, 3, 4 and 5 block meals available to purchase. Monday's menu looks like this:

Poached Fulton Valley Chicken salad, Napa cabbage jalapeno slaw, slivered almonds, with a soy ginger vinaigrette

The meals will be prepared using only antibiotic & hormone free meats, and the produce will be local and organic. First come, first serve (most of you will have to beat Mike off the fridge)!

For those of you dipping your toes into Zone eating, this is a good opportunity to give some balanced and delicious meals a try. If you're going for performance increases and/or body composition changes it is the way and the light! If you don't believe me, ask Connie, Mike, Nicole Carroll, Lance, Sierra, Lau, Robyn, Tamara, Daniel......the list goes on and on!

Post your thoughts on the idea to comments.

Connor came in and did deadlifts a couple days ago. The end result is in the video above: 500 lbs for 3 reps.

Post props to Connor in comments.

On June 28th at 11a.m. we will be having a Community Day Workout for anyone who is interested in checking out CrossFit Oakland. We will teach a handful of the fundamental movements and follow it up with a short team workout. The workout is FREE to all!

What is P. Hole doing? Post your guess to comments.

There will be no stretching class tomorrow, but will resume in July on Monday nights at 6 p.m.!

"Flexibility is not something that automatically comes with strength training. On the contrary, strength training without stretching can lead to dramatic reduction in flexibility. In many cases, when taken to the extreme, such a lack of flexibility will result in loss of "normal" function, not to mention loss of high-performance function so important to athletes."-Roger Harrell

***************************************
Free Community Day Class Tomorrow @ 11a.m.!

Nabil and others will be doing the Butterfly Kipping Clinic tomorrow at 3p.m.! Get some for the Games...speaking of which,

What is your food/drink strategy for the CF Games in Aromas? Post to comments.

It's time for another CFO social outing! This time we're choosing The Ramp. It comes highly recommended by fellow CFO athlete and salsa dancer extraordinaire Melissa A.

We're planning on heading over there around 5pm this coming Saturday, June 7.

This will be the perfect opportunity for you to hang out with a bunch of other CFOers, have some good food and drink, and even dance if you get the urge.

We'll be meeting at 5pm at CFO so that we can carpool over. If you'd like to skip the carpool, just meet us there at 5:30pm.

Post to comments if you're down for some food, drink, and dancing. I've even heard that Nicole is going to lead us through some tequila shot & burpee supersets!

It has been an honor to watch Tamara tenaciously attack CrossFit over the last couple of years and a privilege to get to know her in the process! We wish Tami a very Happy Birthday and thank you for consistently showing up to show us how it's done!

Birthday wishes to comments.

Austin (left), Mini, and Khalipa (right), both from CrossFit Unlimited

OK, everyone, now's the time to return the favor and participate in the CrossFit Unlimited Throwdown that's happening on Sunday, June 22 at 10am.

Not only do I think it will be a great event, I also think it's a nice thing to do in return, since everyone came up to our box just a few weeks ago.

It will be great preparation for the Games as well.

The workout format is going to be a little different than last time.

Each of the participating Affiliates will submit five workouts to Austin (owner of CrossFit Unlimited and a fine athlete himself). All of the workouts are going to be thrown into a hopper and the one that's chosen is gonna be the one everyone does.

For more details on the event, the workout selection process, etc., go here:

CrossFit Unlimited Throwdown

Post workout suggestions, and whether you'll be participating in the Unlimited Throwdown, to comments.

TomC's initial t-shirt idea for the CF Games

I'm going to pick up with an idea that was thrown forward by CFOer TomC in the comments from yesterday's post. His idea: that those of us doing the CrossFit Games should have a team t-shirt, one with a catchy slogan that will inspire us and unify us.

To that end, Tom came up with the above sketch. It's a good start, but with all respect to Tom, by no means a finished product (but many thanks to Tom for getting the ball rolling!).

So now I'm throwing it to the rest of you.

What should our slogan be for the CF Games? What kind of design? What kind of tone?

Post up your t-shirt ideas to comments.

Pyrros Dimas

Volume 16 of MILO, Journal for Serious Strength Athletes, had an article by Bill Starr, (author of Defying Gravity, The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football) entitled, "Learning to Train through Injuries". Here are a few excerpts to reflect on:

Most injuries are due to two factors: faulty form and overworking an area. Do not sacrifice perfect technique for bigger numbers. You might think you're getting ahead in the beginning, but eventually you'll pay the price.

Identify the weak link and make it considerably stronger and you may be able to do the movement again.

Pay attention to the signals your body is sending you during a workout. If something starts hurting while you're doing a set, stop. I'm not referring to the type of pain resulting from exertion, but that sharp kind, telling you something isn't right. Highly motivated athletes are often capable of overriding a lot of pain. In some cases, this is a plus, but if you're aggravating a muscle or joint, it's definitely a minus. Stop, take a brief rest, maybe apply some muscle rub to the area that was giving you the sharp pain and then try again. Should the pain start up again, eliminate that exercise from your program for a few weeks or even months. There's plenty to choose from, and a change is generally beneficial in the long run.

By now, I would guess that everyone associated with sports and strength training knows of the acronyms RICE: rest, ice, compression, and elevation. These steps are extremely valuable to the healing process and the only cost is some of your time. As soon as you realize that you've hurt an area of your body, ice it. The sooner ice is applied, the better. Ice is never wrong, but heat can be harmful. Sometimes heat feels so nice and the ice is annoying; yet adding heat to damaged tissues only makes things worse. Heat brings more blood to the injured area, and this isn't desirable because more tissues get ruptured in the process, adding to the problem. Ice constricts the tissues and this is exactly what you want in the early stages of an injury. Wrap the ice in a towel so it won't irritate your skin and leave it on for 20-30 minutes--no longer or it will begin to act like heat and you do not want this to happen. Wait 15-20 minutes, and then wrap the injured area in the ice pack again. Keep doing this right up until you go to bed. Just keep an eye on the clock to make certain you don't leave the ice on for too long. The consequences can be quite dire and can turn a small ding into a full-blown injury.

Even though you should not directly involve the injured area in any fom of exercise right away, you should continue to train. Not training at all is a mistake many make, and when they finally decide to start back they've lost a great deal of strength. Take the opportunity to improve strength in the areas that aren't hurt.

When your injury has improved to the point that you can start doing some direct exercise for it, warm the area thoroughly and stay light for several workouts, even if you feel you can do more. This time when the pain has gone but the area is still relatively weak is the period of highest risk in the rehab process. I tell anyone who is rebuilding an injured muscle, attachment or joint to consider it to be mending, yet not 100%. Should you get greedy and re-injure yourself, you can count on extended rehab the second time around.

Post your injury/recovery experiences to comments.