A little flashback from Christmas 2012 to make you smile! It's a great day to CrossFit - see you all in class.

Talayna Fortunato is one of my favorite competitors to watch. An X-gymnast, she rose through the CF ranks insanely fast, finishing in 3rd place in 2012 and 5th place in 2013. If you don't know who she is, you may at least have a fond recollection of a certain WOD which was named after her…"tears of a monkey spider"! This article is worth reading. I found a few I'm guilty of for sure!

Top 10 Mistakes CrossFitters Make
-Talayna Fortunato

1. Not Warming Up Properly
Everyday it takes me around 30 minutes to warm-up. I start with easy cardio for 5-10 min. then do some light foam rolling and stretching, leg swings, lunges, rotator cuff exercises, and finally movements specific to the workout I’m about to do. My warm-up has gotten more extensive (and longer) with each year I do CrossFit®. Almost to the point that it started to annoy me, and then I remembered back to my gymnastics days. Ever since I was on team at age 8, I remember our warm-ups taking us at least 30 minutes with all of the stretching and other calisthenics we did. Even though we were young and healthy I believe the gymnastics coaches knew what they were doing to keep us that way. With the intensity of competitive CrossFit® it’s imperative to put in the time for an adequate warm-up and mobility work. If you don’t put in the time now you’ll put it in later when you have an injury.

2. Eating too Strict of a Paleo Diet
If you are a recreational CrossFitter following a Paleo lifestyle is probably nutritionally adequate and a good way of maintaining longevity and health. However, if you are a competitive level athlete and training intensely more than an hour a day your main source of energy is carbohydrates and strict paleo simply does not provide enough sources of them. Now I’m not saying to go out and carb load on pasta, bread, or sugar. That’s just an inflammatory insulin bomb. I am saying look for complex sources of carbohydrates from plants and low glycemic grains to add into your diet, especially when training is at its peak. During an interview at the Games every individual athlete was asked who follows a paleo diet, and not a single one raised their hand.

3. Sacrificing Technique and Movement Efficiency for Intensity and Eventual Technical Breakdown.
CrossFit gets results due to the intensity of the workouts, but that doesn't mean throw all good form out the window. For example if your back starts rounding when you’re pulling from the ground or you’re chasing wildly after snatches, it’s time to put the bar down until you can regain efficiency. Your back and other body parts will thank you later! Also if you’re compromising range of motion enough to miss consecutive reps, take a quick rest before you go again. Otherwise you’re ingraining poor habits and when you reach that place of pain and fatigue again in competition guess what’ll happen… No Rep!

4. Doing Volume for Volume’s Sake without Intent.
CrossFitters are notorious for thinking that when they’re getting ready to compete more is better. This mindset leads to the performance of multiple hero WoDs in a day with the intent of “loading”, when what it really does is break the athlete down with laborious repetition and impede lasting gains. More is not better, better is better. Having a purpose, i.e. knowing the energy system and muscular groups you’re trying to tax during a workout allows you to work smart and hard, not just hard. Again, your body will also thank you later!

5. Cherry Picking Workouts and/or Jumping Around Programs
This is for the CrossFitter that walks into the gym and decides when they get there what workout they’re going to do based on what their gym posts and which one of the blogs they follow appears best that day. Blogs are written for a reason, with progressive intent to allow your workouts to build upon themselves for measurable improvements in your numbers. If you jump from program to program, weekly or even daily, that progress is completely short-circuited. Not to mention you’re probably doing mostly what you’re good at and not working your weaknesses enough.

6. Following a Strength Progression that Doesn't Makes Sense or One Without Any Progression at All.
The body adapts to load by responding to meet the load in the form of muscular hypertrophy. There have been many studies showing the best percentages of max load, sets, reps, and frequency to produce optimal gains without under or overloading the athlete. These studies have produced named strength progression tables, squat cycles, and the like. You can reinvent the wheel and use yourself as a guinea pig to do your own research, or you can find a viable progression and just follow it. I’ll give you one guess what most long-term successful athletes do. One other thought to keep in mind is how much loading your conditioning work is providing. An example would be making your conditioning heavy on the weights during the heaviest week of a strength loading cycle (no bueno).

7. Forgetting to Supplement Your Program with Basics, Strict Strength, and Supplemental Work.
Just because you can kip almost any movement in CrossFit, doesn’t mean it’s in your best interest to do so all of the time. Working strict strength with things like dumbbell press or tempo bench press can do wonders for the strength of your jerk or stamina of kipping handstand push-ups. Sometimes to get better at a complex movement you need better strength with the basics as well. Think along the lines how important the hollow position is during kipping in general and you’ll see why doing hollow rocks would have carry over into almost all gymnastics movements. Basic skills and strict strength also overlap with supplemental work, which can be a great way to address muscular imbalances and push past plateaus. Supplemental work is also a staple in the work of some of the strongest people on the planet who employ Loui Simmon’s conjugate method.

8. Waiting >90min. to Replenish After a Hard Training Session or Only Replenishing Protein.
The fact is the majority of CrossFitters do not need a liquid protein shake post-workout. If you are just doing CrossFit as part of a healthy lifestyle or you are trying to decrease body fat, then a meal consisting of lean protein, nutrient-dense carbs (vegetables) and healthy fat is best post-workout. However, if you are participating in CrossFit as a competitive athlete and are completing multiple grueling and taxing workouts several days per week (and many times twice per day), your post-workout nutrition becomes vital to your success. Although this is a very individualized thing, there are some constants; the first being that you need more than just protein after each session. Protein combined with carbohydrates is essential immediately following a workout - it's just a matter of how much of each based on the individual. The ideal ratio of carbs:protein can typically run anywhere from 2:1 to 4:1 depending on the athlete's body composition and type of training session just completed. The source of carbohydrates should be something that will work quickly with minimal interference. Some examples would be maltodextrin or sugar. The priority is timing and you want to make sure this liquid shake is taken immediately after the session is completed in order to replenish your glycogen stores decreased from training and spark muscle protein synthesis. Approximately one hour after drinking this shake, you should then consume a whole foods meal consisting of lean protein and carbohydrates. A great example of that would be some grilled chicken and a sweet potato. Again, the amounts of protein and carbs are extremely individualized. It doesn’t have to be the size of a traditional dinner, and each athlete must find their ideal ratio, but the constant is timing and the combining of the two macronutrients.

9. Skimping on Sleep and Skipping Rest Days
Nearly as important as what you’re doing in the gym is what you’re doing outside of the gym. The ability to recover is instrumental to seeing consistent gains in athletic performance. Growth Hormone (GH) is an essential part of that recovery. It allows the body’s ability to repair itself after intense exercise through muscular hypertrophy and plays a significant role in the maintenance of lean body mass. Nearly 50% of GH secretion occurs during the third and fourth NREM sleep stages. If you are regularly skimping on sleep by 2 or more hours you are missing the body’s prime production time of GH, and thereby not recovering as you could or should be. Basically all the effort you put into your squat cycle was just thwarted by a significant percentage if you were sleep deprived during it. Another important aspect of recovery is taking needed rest days. Continuing to workout through a certain level of fatigue or soreness can actually be counterproductive long term.

10. Asking for Advice and Then Not Implementing it.

See 1-9

Strength: 1-1-1-1-1 of 1 snatch balance + 2 OHS

WOD: "Haymaker". Alternate sets of...
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Man-Makers
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Pull-ups

Granted it doesn't check depth or form…but what a brilliant idea and great incentive to get people moving. And it does accept pistols!!



On Wednesday night, Dec 4th @ 8pm, we will be holding a meeting discussing competition in the new year and the CF "Open" - phase 1 of the CF Games. The meeting will last about 30-45 minutes. We will give an overview of how the Open works, discuss scheduling for some competition-level training times during the next few months, and answer any questions you may have.

Wondering if this meeting is for you?
-Would you like to get involved with CF competition, both in and outside of Paradigm?
-Are you curious about the "Open", what it entails, and how you can take part?
-Do you have most of your basic gymnastic skills down (pull-up, T2B, HSPU, pistol..)? If not, are these skills on your radar for the next few months?
-Can you complete most leader board WODs Rx? ok-maybe not 30 MU's for time…but Cindy, Nancy, Annie, Grace, Helen?

Main WOD

Strength: HSC 6 x 5 @ 65-75%

DU's and Pullups: 5 UB sets of each! (Pull-ups: scaled= ring rows, intermediate= kipping, RX= strict, beastmode= L-sit strict)

CORE: 3x handstand hold for 15s, 30s, 45s, or 1m. between HS's, complete 30 V-ups or Situps.

CF LITE

WOD:
2m cap: run 200 & complete 10 burpees (any remaining time is rest)
3m cap to run 400 & complete 20 burpees (any remaining time is rest)
6m cap to run 800 & complete 30 burps. RX if you finish each assignment in time caps. There is no break between each time segment.

Conditioning:
Tabata Row & Tabata air squat, report lowest of each. 3m rest between skills.

Let's kick off the holiday season by enjoying some yummy treats and a cup of coffee or tea together! We will each go home with a pack of healthier cookies to sample and share with family, as well as some great recipes to use during the Christmas season.

1) Find a favorite paleo cookie to bake. Make sure it meets these healthy treat requirements!

-Use honey, maple syrup, dates, coconut palm sugar, or stevia to sweeten your cookies. No regular sugars or "fake" sweeteners (and make sure any fruits or coconut used isn't sweetened with sugar either!)
-No grains (wheat flour, oats, etc). Instead, stick to almond, coconut flours or other nut flours.
-No artificial coloring or food dyes.
-No candy or extra sweet chocolate. Dark chocolate will be an allowed exception! Or check out better chocolate options such as Enjoy Life chips.
-While not truly "Paleo", dairy ingredients will be allowed; just keep in mind that using them might limit some people's ability to try or use your recipe.

2) Bring 1-2 dozen of your freshly baked cookies to exchange on Dec 1st, Sunday morning at 11am. We will let you know a more exact number of cookies to bring after sign-ups.

3) Send your recipe BEFORE SATURDAY to Tina Nyquist - she will be compiling a file with all of the recipes for us.

Sign up at the gym and see you there! If you have any questions, contact Tina Nyquist or Melody.

The more I read and learn about nutrition, the more I’m convicted that real foods are the only way to go. We are led to believe that our food industry is capable of making the things we ingest more nutritious than the food was to begin with. The idea that a manufacturing plant can take something that was once living and natural and then put it through a crazy process of deconstruction and reconstruction to leave us with something more nourishing, is simply absurd. But labels and packaging are creative and enticing. It is pretty awesome to think that I can get all of my nutrients from a glass of Sunny Delight and a big bowl of Lucky Charms! Of course I’m simply consuming a pile of deconstructed sugar with some second-class nutrients glued back on top.

“Fortified” and “enriched” are the two terms I want to discuss today. “Enrichment” means that a nutrient which was lost during manufacturing and processing has been added back to a food. “Fortification” means that nutrients were added to a food which did not naturally have those nutrients to begin with, or in amounts beyond those which originally occurred. Be wary of this label. It signifies that the food has been processed and that it is offering you a shabbier version of a nutrient which is essential for your health. Keep in mind that these processes are relatively new on our planet, therefore a lot is still to learn about them and the repercussions of relying on them. In fact, Denmark, one of the more nutritionally conservative countries, actually began restricting fortified foods in 2004! Makes you wonder why...

The problem with this tampering process is that the natural synergy of these nutrients is lost. What you are left with is a processed and artificial food that is an attempt at giving your body what it needs. When you start isolating nutrients, your body simply does not recognize it the same way; therefore it absorbs and digests it differently. This is why I firmly believe that taking in your vitamins and minerals through food is far superior to popping multivitamins. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a time and place for a supplement...but don’t fool yourself into thinking that the pill form is good enough.

Remember the goals of giant food companies: to sell a product...not necessarily to make you healthy. One of the many problems with fortified nutrients is that the company can choose the form of that nutrient which they are going to insert back into the food. And you can count on them choosing the cheapest type! A good example of this is Calcium fortification (often in drinks like orange juice). Unfortunately, calcium carbonate is often used which is a poor form for our body and can often lead to other health concerns. Sometimes, forms of the nutrients are used which aren’t even recognized by our bodies - therefore we never even absorb them! The companies make money off their foods masquerading to be something they aren’t, and the ignorant consumer never gets their nutrients.

Another problem is that nutrients naturally occur together in food. And there’s an innate reason for this! Often the uptake of one nutrient is affected by the presence of other nutrients. Again, if you are eating a broad range of real foods in their natural form, this is an issue you don’t even have to really think about. If you are going to cut out certain food groups entirely, you have no choice but to go down the fortified path...which means you have to really do your research and planning (and a degree in chemistry would be a serious plus!) And even then, our attempts at recreating foods by patching things back together will never be as superior as nature.

When you decide to forgo a complete food group...as in the parent who gives in to their kids refusing to eat leafy greens or the vegan who says goodbye to meat and dairy...there will be certain nutrients which you cannot obtain naturally. A great example of this is the B12 argument. B12 is vital for human health and is only found naturally in living things: namely fish, meat and dairy. Some of it's many important functions are ensuring we have healthy red blood cells, normal nervous system functioning, and are able to properly replicate DNA (pregnant women!). Vegans argue that B12 deficiency is not a problem. Why? Because many foods are fortified with it, and if these substitute foods are eaten several times daily, the requirements can be met. It seems unnatural and illogical that we should have to rely on modern technology for our basic nutritional needs. If a vegan was living 500 years ago…prior to manufacturing plants which can add nutrients to heavily processed soy milk…he would be living with serious B12 deprivation!

This issue is relevant to more than just the vegans. There are many guilty “paleo” eaters as well who never touch certain fruits and vegetables. The broader the range of real foods that we eat, the less we have to worry (or even think) about hitting all of our needed nutrients. It's not that eating a "fortified" food every now and then is the end of the world; but if you are relying on these types of foods to meet a requirement for a specific nutrient, you are being misled. Eat real foods not fake stuff!

HOMEWORK:
1) Go through your fridge and pantry and see how many items say "fortified" or "enriched". Toss them out!
2) Make a list of the real foods (fruits, veggies, meats, eggs, nuts, seeds….) that you won't/don't eat (or at least won't without some strong coaxing or bribing!) Start giving some of these foods a second chance. The more diverse you can be with the foods you incorporate into your meal plan, the better!

STRENGTH: Back Squat & OHS

METCON: 5 rounds NOT for time (move @ 80%)
-10 high step ups
-10 ring rows
-10 burpees

MOBILITY