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Almost everyone has heard of the importance of Fish Oil or Omega 3′s (but there seems to be confusion about Omega 3/6/9) and their impact on health. Omega 3 supplementation is appearing in everything from power/recovery bars to orange juice. Claims of Omega 3′s ability to prevent disease and decrease inflammation… to read more http://bodyworkspei.ca

You may hear the trainers referring from time to time that a movement is a Skill Transfer Exercises.

What do we mean by that?

Well simply we’re trying to have you do a movement that mimics, builds on or compliments another movement.

A Wall Ball Shot can teach someone the concept of receiving the bar in a squat clean, a ring dip is the catch position of a muscle-up, double unders can teach you to open the hips like the triple extension position in a Snatch or double under.

All of these movements can be used to transfer towards some other movement.

Or they can counter act it!

A double under down with heels coming up towards the butt, with the body leaning forward in a partial tuck position and simultaneously spinning in the circle would be transferring to one ugly Snatch.

DeadHang Pullups and Ring Dips are essential movements before focusing on a Muscle-up.

The hip opening promoted by doing cleans, snatches and kettlebell swings is the same explosive hip opening needed for a serve in tennis, jumping for a rebound in basketball, and through impact when hitting a golf ball.

If we think of the movement we do whether at the gym or elsewhere they impact each other and we can either improve the movement pattern or counteract it.

So dark mornings, back to school shopping…summer vacations are quickly drawing to an end…Labor Day is the next best thing to New Year’s…If you human whatsoever, it is quite likely your eating (and drinking?) may have changed a tad over the summer season.

So….to get our collective buts in gear, CFPEI is planning a 30 day Paleo challenge to start September 1st, with details coming in the next few days.

In a nutshell, you throw $10 in a pot, get privately measured and photos taken, take on the challenge of cleaning up your diet in a supportive community of people doing the same thing, do a couple bench mark workout as prescribed by our head coach. At the end of the 30 days, we remeasure, take some more photos and reevaluate a same or similar bench mark wod. Top finishers will be determined by performance gains, committment to the challenge and inches lost (we dont do scales) As in with everything Crossfit, the magic is in the community not winning….we will have an information session, set up a forum to share tips, recipes and a place to turn to when that extra large iced cinanamon roll is calling your name:)

Look for some coming information on what the paleo diet is and how to get started…I will be at the gym for both classes on Saturday this weekend (anticipating some long weekend vacations on Labor Day) and up until Wednesday of next week to do measurements and photos and collect fee. All will be kept private and under lock and key with your registration fee!

Post your name to comments if you up for the challenge! Thus far I have
Cindy H
Heather
Suzanne
Faith
Tracy
Angela
Pam W
Shauna
Kelly L
Carol
Amanda
Stephanie
Beth
Kelly M
Mary Lynn
Cheryl

Fellas?

CrossFit’s Methodology at its core is Constantly Varied Functional Movements performed at High Intensity. We express this methodology through our programming, and this extends into the warm-up.

Here is a little explanation of how the warm-up may or may not be programmed on any particular day.

Most days the warm-up is the instructor’s choice, they may allow folks to roll in, move around and loosen up, stretch, roll, lift something, etc… Other days it may be very scripted involving some running drills, kettle bells, pushups, squats or pull-ups, but in general its just something to get you moving and warmed up. Sometimes it to hit a movement we haven’t done in a while, other times it to look at capacity of folks to see a movement in future workout. Sometime it will determine what we do that day (that was the case last Wednesday, Brugener Warm-up was slow and look more like KB Swings than Snatches so we worked on Snatches and scrapped the programming I had scripted for the day). We don’t want it so taxing that it blunts your workout or strength session.

Sometimes the instructor may choose to review the movements that are going to appear in the workout, or work a skill progression like the Brugener Warm-up (all together it works on the Snatch!). I personally like to throw in some balance, mobility or movement exploration stuff, like pressing a kettle overhead while in a lunge, or doing a lizard crawl (oh the moaning and groaning when that appears!). I like these odd things so folks can become aware of our imbalances, tendencies and deficiencies. These are the things we need to warm-up. These are the things we need to address deal with.

If doing a Turkish Get-up is hard to do on the left side why is that not part of your warm-up? Maybe Squat Therapy, Toes to Bar, a Pigeon Pose or Foam Rolling. Address your imbalance, address your movements that need some exploration, but keep it varied and not just a pain session or chore.

Try to make it fun (even the warm-up) that’s part of what we’re trying to do too. To get you loose physically and mentally. To unburden the body and the mind in preparation for the time of escape during the workout. If you can think of the report you need to write on rep 16 of 20 during your 20 Rep Max Back Squat you are not finding a Max! If you can go through a check-list of to-do items during Fight Gone Bad were not getting you enough escape time.

Many people start CrossFit with a basic goal: get fit. As they continue with it, they realize that there are many aspects of “fitness” and that improving their overall fitness requires focus on a particular area or even exercise. A good example are doubleunders … making that skipping rope go under your feet twice in one jump seems impossible for many when they first encounter them in a workout.

Greg Amundson, one of the original fire breathers in CrossFit, has become a huge resource to the CrossFit community in the area of goal setting. In addition to extensively publishing articles and videos on the subject, CrossFit HQ now has him providing the CrossFit Goal Setting Trainer Course that you sign up for in the same way you sign up for a CrossFit Olympic Lifting Trainer Course or a CrossFit Gymnastics Trainer Course.

Setting goals are as important as Gymnastics and Olympic Lifting because without the mental side of CrossFit your improvements on the physical side will not be as great. Greg Amundson as a number of great articles in the CrossFit Journal which in my opinion are alone more than worth the $25 annual cost to subscribe to it.

Tips for Setting Your Goals

You may want to do a pull up, do 10 doubleunders, deadlift 400 pounds or run a marathon. How you frame these goals is crucial in attaining them.

In his article, Coaching the Mental Side of CrossFit (July 2010), Amundson makes three great points about setting goals:

1. The goal must be concise and specific – the more focused the definition, the more precise the planning, preparation and training.
2. The goal must be expressed in the positive tense – the subconscious does not hear the negative so when you say to yourself “don’t stop running” your subconscious mind hears “stop running”.
3. The goal must include a time frame that is challenging yet realistic and achievable – the time frame must challenge and motivate you. Setting it too far in the future will lack the urgency and “fail to create the internal fire needed for accomplishment.” Setting it too short “may lead to discouragement and despair.”

Once you have your goal, stating it publicly further improves your chances of success as it makes you more accountable. In addition, when you hit that goal, the moment is even sweeter as everyone can then celebrate with you.

Publicly stating your goals can be done by setting it with your coach or writing it up on a white board (some people even put them up on a blog or Facebook). We are going to put some up on the white board by the locker rooms. As your coaches, we can help you frame your goals, prioritize them and set the time frames in which to accomplish them.

Indomitable Spirit

If you look around the gym you will see “Indomitable Spirit” written on the wall. It is one of the five tenets of Taekwondo and is used to describe someone who has a very strong character and will not give up. They cannot be subdued or overcome and will keep on trying.

I have always been struck by the similarities between martial arts and CrossFit. Amundson concludes with this in his article stating that as you realize what the mind can believe the body can achieve, you will forge an indomitable spirit within you.

There is always that moment in the middle of a CrossFit workout where you question just why you are doing this to yourself and part of you wants to quit. Pushing through this makes you better. As Amundson states:

Regardless of the time to completion or the amount of weight used, simply facing the daunting workout of the day (WOD) puts the other obstacles of life into proper perspective: they are a lot easier.

Talk to your coaches about your goals and we can help you set them. This article only scratches the surface … check out some of the articles by Greg Amundson in the Journal, including:

• The Chink in My Armor (September 2009) – great article about doubleunders
• Coaching the Mental Side of CrossFit (July 2010)
• Positive Self-Talk: The Greatest Adaptation (September 2010) - free download
• Positive Self-Talk: Focusing on Your Goals (October 2010)
• Positive Self-Talk: Defining Your Terms (October 2010) – free download
• Positive Self-Talk: Defining Your Destiny (November 2010) – free download

Mike