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Archive | February, 2010

Upcoming weeks.

February 16, 2010

A quick shout out to Anu for her new PR, since i just got her email, in the Hang power Clean. She added 15 lbs to her last effort. Nice work girl!

I wanted to update everyone really quickly on my whereabouts for the coming weeks.
I am currently In Phoenix AZ at the World Intercollegiate Handball Championships. Play starts tomorrow night and will go on all weekend. There are players from all over the US, Mexico, Canada and Ireland so it is sure to be fun to watch.

I will be heading to Calgary on Thursday for the first OPT assessment seminar. I am really pumped about this. besides getting the chance to just hang with one of the best in the business, i am excited to be able to dig into the mind of a genius. More to come on that for sure.

I will have a short week then be in Nevada for a week helping some local FD and emergency rescue departments effectively implement a high intensity, functional movement program into their current training.

Then i am back to TX and a short drive to OK for the sectionals in Tulsa where i am going to watch Jeff crush everyone!!
I can’t wait!

I hope everyone is doing well and keep an eye out for some cool stuff coming your way right here!

Dutch

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Metaphysics

February 12, 2010

I do a lot of reading outside of Fitness and Health related content, probably much to your surprise. I read something today that really got me thinking and i wanted to share it with ya’ll. Take a couple minutes to reflect on this and post thoughts below. Here is the post in its entirety and here is the link:
http://www.warriorofthelight.com/

Issue nº 217

Understanding the enemy

The enemy without

My reader Murali from India tells the story of a girl who decided to climb a mountain to visit her grandmother. It was pouring with rain, a cold wind was blowing, and thunder rolled at each second.

When she was almost reaching her destination, she felt something brushing against her feet. Looking down, she saw that it was a snake.

“I’m almost dying,” said the snake. “It’s very cold and there’s no food up here on this mountain, please protect me! Put me under your coat, save my life, and I will be your best friend.”

Despite the storm, the girl stopped and began to reflect. She saw the snake’s green and gold skin and told herself that she had never seen anything so beautiful. She thought how her classmates would envy her if she showed up with a snake to defend her from everything. Finally she said:

“All right. I am going to save you because all living beings deserve care and affection.”

The snake became the girl’s friend, served to scare aggressive people at school, and kept her company on lonely days. Until one night when she was doing her homework and she felt a sharp pain in her right foot. On looking down, she saw that the snake had bitten her.

“You’re poisonous!” she cried. “I’m going to die!”

The snake said nothing.

“How could you do this to me? I saved your life!”

“On that day, when you bent down to save me, you knew I was a snake, didn’t you?”

And he slithered slowly away.

The enemy within

Nasrudin saw a man sitting at the side of a road looking utterly desolated.

“What’s bothering you?” he asked.

“My brother, there is nothing interesting in my life. I have enough money not to need to work, and I was traveling to see if there was anything curious in the world. But everyone I have met has nothing new to say to me, all they do is make me more bored.

“In a word, I can tell you without any fear of doubt that despite all that I have done, I haven’t managed to find the peace I sought. I have turned into my own worst enemy.”

At that very moment, Nasrudin grabbed the man’s bag and ran off down the road. Since he knew the region well, he quickly managed to set a considerable distance from the man by taking shortcuts through the fields and over the hills.

When he was far enough away, he put the bag down in the middle of the road where the traveler was bound to pass, and hid behind a rock. The man appeared half an hour later, feeling more miserable than ever because of the thief he had come across.

As soon as he caught sight of the bag, he ran to open it, breathless. Upon seeing that everything was intact, he looked up to the sky full of joy and thanked the Lord for life.

“Certain people only realize the taste of happiness when they manage to lose it,” thought Nasrudin, looking at the scene before his eyes.

Don’t forget to get signed up for the Black Box Summit. April 24-25 at Catalyst Athletcis in Sunnyvale CA.

Also, Do you want to attend one of my last Performance Development seminars?!? Sign up here.

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Videos

February 8, 2010

So, like many of you, i spend way too much time watching videos of movement and training. I stumbled across this one the other day and had to share it. It is rare that you find slow motion videos of world class lifters. I know Iron Maiden has alot but to be honest, Americans just aren’t world class yet… So here is the video and as an added benefit these guys are in my weight class so that give me a bit of motivation.

Oh yea, you think these guys have coaches, and do you think they would be decent competitive Crossfiters??

I also want to highlight this post for those of you with weak hamstrings/posterior chains.
http://www.defrancostraining.com/index.php

Don’t forget to get signed up for the Black Box Summit. April 24-25 at Catalyst Athletcis in Sunnyvale CA.

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Hard Work

February 7, 2010

I had the pleasure of having a video conference call with a couple hard chargers focused on the CF games this year which got me thinking about a couple topics. (which was super fucking cool by the way). One of which is Hard work. A bit of our discussion focused around things i would consider minutia. Not unimportant but certainly not things that will swing their training to a new level. Things such as supplements, and micromanaging diet. Their argument was that if they can dial in all these little things they will add up to bigger gains in the long runs. This may be true but essentially we can cancel out most of these gains by missing a night of sleep or slipping up at a meal somewhere down the road. Then you are back to the drawing board.

My advice to them and to anyone wanting to improve their fitness specifically but quite honestly this applies to just about everything you can think of was to just work HARDER! Not work More or differently (provided you have decent programming) but harder. Put more weight on the barbell, rest less in a conditioning workout and keep your mind focused.
This can actually go past just the workouts and creep into recovery. I know many of you (you know who you are) show up at the gym on your “rest” day and end up working on “skills” and wonder why the next couple workouts are shitty, i mean after all you took a rest day right?
Rest means more than not starting a clock. It means sleeping, eating and not doing anything. Maybe a little bit of stretching and soft tissue work but with some of you, allowing even that will end up being pretty stressful. So, work harder at resting as well. Be smart and focus on your effort not the balance of saturated vs unsaturated fat in your diet…

Don’t forget to get signed up for the Black Box Summit. April 24-25 at Catalyst Athletcis in Sunnyvale CA.

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Common Injuries (the elbow)

February 6, 2010

Note:
It is important to understand that all bodies are different and all injuries are different. My reason for these posts is to possibly open you eyes to alternative ideas for therapy. It is NOT to diagnose YOUR injuries. If you have similar pains, you should talk to a professional to verify that there is not further damage and you will not be causing permanent injury by treating it in some way.
Crossfit has a huge potential for injury, as it does for amazing results. Be smart with your training and you will last longer as an athlete and a human.

The problem:

I have not had any issues personally but just like the other injuries i have seen this come up over and over.  I have seen it mainly come up from massive amounts of pullups.  I think it is a factor of the constant downward jolt you get from doing butterfly (not a good idea unless competing) and the same jolt that a newbie gets when learning he kipping pullup.  I think this ends up being a purely tendonitis (overuse) issue.

The fix:

Along with ice and ice massage which i forgot to mention in the knee post.  Ice massage is helpful for just about any injury you can think of so don’t forget about it.  I think take a couple weeks off pullups can heal this.  Also try massage and trigger point work.  After 2 weeks off be smart about reintegrating pullups into your program.  Sorry for the lack of details here but i think it is a pretty simple injury to fix so don’t over think it.

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Advances in Technology

February 6, 2010

Advances in technology are amazing recently. Want to have a face to face conversation with people in different parts of the country? Want to discuss topics important to you as a crossfitter/fitness enthusiast/business owner?
Check out what a friend of mine has put together. http://www.athletesforum.net/facetoface/
It is very cool technology, and really is kinda fun.

Sunday is the second shot at it and you are lucky to have Brian of Potomac Crossfit to discuss how he got over 300 clients and 14 coaches involved in his affiliate in just over 1 year. Well worth the investment in my opinion.

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What do you look for in a coach?

February 4, 2010

Thats it. What do you look for in a coach?


www.blackboxsummit.net

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