2009 Maltz Memorial Challenge

@ Rainier CrossFit on March 23rd.


Please register!

More on CrossFit Nutrition

CrossFit Nutrition:

• Paleo Breakfast
• Paleo Office Snacks
• Jerky!
• CrossFit Journal: Meth In a Can
• Intermittent Fasting 101
  
• CrossFit Message Boards: Bryers every night!
  

I'm going to compile a list of Paleo and Zone friendly foods that you can (and should use) as a grocery list.

TOMORROW: A handful of helpful sites!

Fat Loss and Fasted Workouts

From Life Spotlight, formally known as The Modern Forager,

What do we already know about fat loss and hormones? Well the fat cells are like “storage” tanks that store fats until the body signals to “release” those fats to be used a fuel/energy (aka burned). One of the biggest hormones that we have control over with our eating habits is insulin. This is important to know because of the relationship it has with other important hormones involved in helping us to burn fat, namely glucagon and growth hormone. Insulin when released in large quantities is telling the body to “get ready to store some fuel in the tanks”, as it is increased with large meals (or large bursts of sugar into the bloodstream). Glucagon and Growth Hormone are 2 important hormones used in lipolysis (the process of breaking down and releasing stored fats inside the “tanks”).

Here’s the key, when insulin goes up….then glucagon and growth hormone will lower, and when insulin is low then glucagon and growth hormone can elevate. What does this have to do with working out? Well if your goal is to “burn” up stored fat, then you want an environment that allows and promotes fat to be released right? Having high insulin levels during a workout will not be an optimal environment for the hormones most responsible for freeing up fat from storage. So what is the solution?

Well looking at the video you can see that insulin can remain elevated for 2-3 hours after large enough meals. Ideally you want to go into a fat burning based workout in a more “fasted” state, not “fed” (one in which you want to spike those GH levels with some intensity and burn that fat as fuel for your activity). This can be done first thing in the morning when insulin should be at it’s lowest (and you are fasted from overnight) or if later in the day then you should be waiting 2-3 hours after your last meal. Remember, you don’t need to eat to workout as you should have enough fuel as stored glycogen in your muscles, liver….and oh yeah, you want to burn fat remember?!

The best kinds of workouts can be in the AM (or later) and will start off with more intensity (intervals, sprinting, explosive lifting, heavy lifting) to get those GH levels spiked…and then trail off into slower paced activity to burn that fat (what I like to call “lifestyle” cardio). Remember, short intensity based activity first….then the slower enjoyable stuff….go ride a bike, play tennis, whatever you enjoy. Once you tell the body to free up the fat…and they are floating around waiting to be burned…then you still need to go do something to burn it! (otherwise it just gets stored back into the “tanks”).

To see the video and read the rest of the article, click here.

Farewell Workout Recap

Our last wrecking crew:

John, Marc, Allen, PJ, Tiff, Andrew, Elizabeth, Eileen, Ron and Arvin

So last Friday we had the Farewell Workout at the Lake City location. We had a great group of eight come in.

the WOD

Congrats to PJ getting the highest pullup EVER in FCF.

Teams Awesome and OOC (Out of Control)

OOC counting down the situps

Paolo and Marc squatting away

the results.

the post-WOD ritual cooldown

We're in the process of growing, so please bear with us. Stay updated with blog to catch all the updates!

Goodbye ActivSpace!

Big thanks to King CrossFit for coming out to support!

The Farewell Workout

Late notice, I know, but tomorrow will be the LAST WORKOUT EVER at the Lake City location, as we are moving out for bigger and better things.


Come support and sweat it out one last time...

The Burgener Warm-up

A great video from CrossFit Evolution (who put out quality all day every day!):


Burgener Warm-up and Skill Transfer from Leonid S. on Vimeo.

Floor Press

The floor press is much more difficult that a normal bench press for many reasons:

• It is not a common exercise technique and thus not well practiced nor taught.
• Because of it's simplicity it's been around much longer than the popular bench press.
  
• Floor press : Bench press :: Deadlift : Back squat. Normally for a bench press or back squat you would start the lift in the eccentric phase of the contraction, or the stretching of the muscle, and end with the more difficult part of contracting the muscle, also known as the concentric phase. Floor presses and deadlifts start with concentric (hard) part and end with the eccentric (easier)
  
• The range of motion is as if you were in the midpoint of a normal bench press.

Try it.

Do you...

Cough after an intense workout?


It happens as increased mucus production gets down your trachea due to heavy open-mouth breathing and it's fairly common, especially with CrossFit metcon workouts.

SO TODAY WE'RE DOING METCON! Will it include some combination of squatting, pushing, pulling, closing/opening of the hips, jumping, throwing, lifting, etc? You bet!

Expect to cough.

PUMA H-Streets on Sale!

via The Official CrossFit Boards (see why I make you get on them?!) the beloved shoe of many CrossFitters, PUMA.com is selling the H-Street model for only $42.00! If you check that link there's a promotional code for $10 off.

• Puma H-Street Vibrant Yellow/Black/Amazon
  
• Puma H-Street White/Puma Yellow/Spectra Yellow
  
• Puma H-Street White/Puma Red/Amazon

The official description:

Incorporating the characteristics of a distance track spike, H. Street's sleek, low profile silhouette, minimal outsole and lightweight mesh upper combine the worlds of sport and fashion into a colorful and versatile shoe.

Refer back to this article!

Dorian's HSPUs

from The Audacity of Dope.

Last week at ActivSpace

As some of you already know, this will be our last week in the box on Lake City. Classes are still on for 9am and 6:30pm Monday through Friday. Please notify Andrew@foundationcrossfit.com if you are planning to attend.



Stay tuned for updates!

No-feet Team Pushups

You'll need three or more people to perform this movement:


Place your feet on the shoulders of whoever is behind you and make sure you are moving simaltaneously. Your team may make a triangle, a square (or equivalent quadrilateral shape), a pentagon, hexagon, dodecagon, whathaveyou, but make sure your team's strength is similar or balanced out.

Tsk tsk

Andrew lost his phone, so the best way to contact him is Andrew@foundationcrossfit.com.

/=

Word from Jack

"You have to take care of your 640 muscles, and the number one thing is exercise. You can eat perfectly but if you don’t exercise, you cannot get by. There are so many health food nuts out there that eat nothing but natural foods but they don’t exercise and they look terrible. Then there are other people who exercise like a son-of-a-gun but eat a lot of junk. They look pretty good because the exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you’ve got a kingdom!"

- Jack LaLanne

LIFTING SHOES

Why should weightlifting shoes top your equipment list?

Mark Rippetoe:

Shoes are the only piece of personal equipment that you really need to own. It only takes one set of five in a pair of squat shoes to demonstrate convincingly to anybody who has done more than one squat workout. A good pair of squat shoes adds enough to the efficiency of the movement that the cost is easily justified. For anywhere from $50 to $200 for the newest Adidas weightlifting shoes, a pair of proper shoes makes a big difference in the way a squat feels. Powerlifting squat shoes have relatively flat soles, and Olympic weightlifting shoes have a little lift in the heal that makes it easier to get the knees forward just in front of the toes. Your choice will depend on your squatting style and your flexibility. Most squat shoes have metatarsal straps to increase lateral stability and suck the foot back into the shoe to reduce intra-shoe movement.

But the main feature of a squat shoe is heel compressibility. The drive out of the bottom starts at the floor, where the feet start the kinetic chain. If the contact between the feet and the floor is the squishy gel or air cell of a running shoe, a percentage of the force of the drive will be absorbed by the compression of the cell. This compression is fine for running, but when squatting it reduces power transmission efficiency and prevents foot stability. Unstable footing interferes with the reproducibility of the movement pattern, rendering virtually every squat a whole new experience and preventing the development of good technique. Squatting in running shoes is like squatting on a bed. Many people get away with it for years, but serious lifters invest in squat shoes. They aren't that expensive, especially compared to brand new name brand athletic shoes, and they make a huge difference in the way a squat feels.

Eating Habits and Memory Function

from Mark's Daily Apple:

"Diet is a powerful force as we say time and again. Most of the studies revolve around the physical aspects: inflammation, disease risk, body composition, blood markers, etc. But there’s the promise a good diet can offer other elements of health, including cognitive performance. With climbing rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s, these correlations are nothing to shake a stick at.

In that vein, this recent study caught our eye. Researchers from the University of Muenster in Germany followed subjects who had been grouped into three practices: a caloric restriction group (30% cut in daily intake), a group that increased their consumption of essential fatty acids (20% increase), and a control group. After three months, all subjects retook tests focused on memory activities. The group that cut its calories showed a “significant increase” in scores related to verbal memory. The apparent cognitive improvement could be correlated, the researchers say, with “decreases in fasting plasma levels of insulin and high sensitive C-reactive protein.” No noteworthy changes were seen in the other subjects."

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE.

Weekend Challenge!

Foundation CrossFit: John's 400lbs deadlift from ABueno on Vimeo.

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WOD

tabata burpees
(chest & thighs on floor to full body extension in the air)

Cool Down

400m walk

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Lynnwood CrossFit's Client Revenge Day: Jesse and D get worked!

Saturday = HELEN

Rainier CrossFit's "HELEN" Challenge is this Saturday the 7th @ 2pm, raising funds for a good cause. Come by, bring some money for a donation (AND A T-SHIRT!)

"HELEN"
3 rds for time:
400m run
21 kettlebell swings, 24kg
12 pullups

CLICK HERE FOR THE EVENT BLOG!

Human Dumbbells

The two class times are at 8am and 6:30pm Monday through Thursday with occasional events on Fridays and Saturdays. Stay tuned!

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Read the article here.

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How many supermans can you do in a row before pausing or quitting?

My top 3 favorite exercises

No one asked me, but I thought I'd share mine:

1. SQUAT - Any kind: air squat, back squat (high/low trap), front squat, Zercher, jumps, Pistols, thrusters, etc... All of them are good! They work the entire body and is the most essential human movement.
2. DEADLIFT - In my opinion it's the biggest indicator of strength. That and it looks really cool when putting up huge weights. It's another essential human movement- we pick things up all the time!
3. KETTLEBELL SWINGS - Rigid/American/CrossFit or Fluid/Russian- they're both fun to do and a great way to get both a cardiovascular and strength workout done with minimal equipment, time and movement. Athletic performance is usually determined by the strength and flexibility of the hips and posterior chain and KB swings help tremendously.
   

The top fitness bloggers on the internets share their top 3 exercises.

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The PULLUP would be my fourth favorite. Here's a great little tutorial video from CrossFit Evolution:

New Tabata Cuts!

When you're short on time and/or equipment!

• Cochise - Audioslave
• Kissin the Curb - Bishop Lamont, Busta Rhymes and Jake One
  
• Womanizer - Britney Spears
• Velocity - Extended F@mm
• Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz
  
• What Are You Waiting For? - Gwen Stefani
• The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
• Toxicity - System of a Down

The songs are edited by playing 20 seconds of music followed by 10 seconds of silence repeated for a total of 4 minutes. The song will continue to play for a minute (rest interval) with a 5 second countdown at the end.

Download, stream, load them up on your iPods, burn them to CDs and share!